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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


JOHN    CHARLES    CORCORAN 

Founder   of 
Trustees  Svstem  Service 


The  GOAL  of  the  BUILDERS 

A  Story  of 

Trustees  System  Service 


By 

GUY  MORTON  BRIGGS 

Editor 

The  Industrial  Banker 


OPPORTUNITY  is  rightly  called  the  loon 
of  American  citizenship.  But  how  often 
has  not  Opportunity  passed  by  some  Aver- 
age Man's  door  because  of  the  lack  of  a 
little  money  to  make  it  possible  for  him  to 
grasp  it  and  put  it  to  profitable  use  in  his 
affairs?  Industrial  Banking  is  the  modern 
lever  that  enables  the  worker  to  recognize 
and  grasp  his  opportunity. 


Published  by 

Trustees  System  Publishing  Corp. 

Chicago 


Copyright,  1921, 

BY 

TEUSTEES  SYSTEM  PUBLISHING  CORP. 


H%MMONO   PRESS 
W.    B.  CONKEY  COMPAMlf 

CHICAOO 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  page 

I.     The  Man  and  the  Idea 5 

II.     The  Vision  of  Service 12 

III.  A  Story  of  Progress    ...  * 19 

IV.  How  ]VIen  Use  the  Service 29 

V.  Character  a  Sound  Collateral    ....     38 

VI.  The  Modern  Industrial  Bank     ....     44 

VII.  Capital  OP  "The  Man  Who  Works"    .    .    54 

VIII.  Marketing  an  Ideal  of  Service    ....     64 

IX.  The  Corporate  Business  Structure    .     .     73 

X.    A  Dependable  Credit  Service 82 

XI.  Writing  Insurance  That  Insures    ...     89 

XII.     Service  in  Home  Buying 96 

XIII.  The  Trustees  System  Personnel    .     .     .  102 

XIV.  Telling  ]\Ien  the  Story 109 

XV.     The  Goal  of  the  Builders 118 


550014 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Man  and  the  Idea 

ONE  day,  early  in  the  year  1914,  a  young  man 
in  Birmingham,  Alabama,  had  one  of  those 
wonderful  thoughts  that  come,  now  and 
then,  to  intellects  of  genius,  and  which  seem  to  be 
born  into  the  world  at  opportune  times  to  ease 
the  strain  of  difficult  living  for  the  great  mass  of 
over-burdened  men  and  women. 

This  young  man  was  John  Charles  Corcoran, 
one  day  to  be  known  as  the  founder  and  guiding 
head  of  that  remarkable  company  of  workers 
whose  business  association  prospers  under  the 
name  TRUSTEES  SYSTEM  SERVICE. 

He  was  born  at  Wisconsin  Rapids,  Wisconsin, 
November  22,  1883.  It  was  a  little  village  on  the 
Wisconsin  River,  and  the  life  of  this  boy  was  that 
of  a  farmer  lad,  with  all  a  farm's  limitations  in 
that  early  period  of  his  country's  history.  His 
father,  a  small  carpenter,  had  never  gone  to  school 
a  day  in  his  life;  but  it  was  his  ambition  to  give 
to  each  of  his  seven  children  a  high  school  edu- 
cation. 

Little  John  Corcoran  early  learned  all  about 
the  value  of  money.  He  never  did  have  any  quan- 
tity of  it  that  he  felt  free  to  spend  on  the  interests 
of  childhood.     From  the  time  he  was  eleven  he 

5 


G  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

earned  his  own  way,  bought  his  own  school  books, 
and  in  time  of  vacation  stowed  away  in  a  little 
savings  account  enough  to  pay  for  clothing  and 
the  other  necessities  that  sent  him  through  school. 

His  first  job  was  soliciting  the  enlargement  of 
photographs  across  the  countryside,  but  he  made 
a  success  of  it.  Many  other  jobs  followed,  for  he 
was  interested  in  everything  he  saw,  and  he  pur- 
sued each  new  interest  with  a  tireless  energy. 
Those  early  days  are  dotted,  therefore,  with  ex- 
periences as  clerk,  salesman,  newspaper  reporter, 
factory  and  mill  employe,  farm  hand  and  timber- 
worker;  and  the  year  1914  found  him  engaged  in 
the  real  estate  business  in  Birmingham,  Alabama. 

If  they  were  difficult  years,  they  were  soon  to 
have  a  particular  value  to  him;  and  it  is  worthy 
of  note  that  the  level  of  his  daily  efforts  was  that 
from  which  the  world's  thinkers  have  always 
come.  P.erhaps  an  unusual  influence  was  guiding 
him.  He  was  learning  life,  how  men  worked  and 
lived.  At  first  hand,  he  was  made  familiar  with 
that  ever-present  struggle  of  the  Average  Man  to 
rise  above  and  conquer  his  environment. 

In  Birmingham  he  found  a  set  of  conditions 
that  deeply  stirred  his  interest.  The  city  was 
then,  as  now,  an  industrial  center,  typical  of  scores 
of  other  busy  communities  in  our  country.  It 
swarmed  with  armies  of  working  men  and  women 
whose  earnings  were  in  the  form  of  weekly  wages 
or  salaries. 


THE  MAN  AND   THE   IDEA  7 

It  also  swarmed  with  regiments  of  loan  sharks 
and  pawnbrokers;  and  there  was  a  sinister  rela- 
tion between  the  parallel  existence  of  these  money 
leeches  with  the  armies  of  earnest  and  thrifty 
workers.  They  offered  the  only  financial  assis- 
tance available  to  the  worker  in  any  time  of  his 
sudden  need  or  greater  opportunity.  No  one  else, 
in  fact,  had  ever  thought  of  offering  him  a  real 
money  service  of  any  kind. 

Why  was  this? 

Aside  from  the  ethical  question  of  usury,  it 
seemed  to  Mr.  Corcoran  that  there  was  no  sound 
business  reason  why  a  liberal,  just  and  profitable 
loans  service  should  not  be  provided  for  the  wage 
and  salary  earner,  as  well  as  the  man  in  business 
life. 

Yet  banks,  even  as  conducted  upon  the  broad 
and  liberal  plans  known  in  America  today,  plainly 
made  no  effort  to  touch  this  field.  They  were  or- 
ganized for  service  in  a  comparatively  restricted 
way,  and  so  hedged  about  by  rule  and  law  that 
they  could  not  reach  beyond  their  customary  busi- 
ness and  financial  circles,  even  if  they  would. 

Only  the  savings  bank  opened  a  welcoming 
door  to  the  footstep  of  ''The  Man  who  Works." 
Yet  even  here  his  only  resource  in  the  day  of 
emergency  was  the  paltry  sum  of  the  savings  he 
might  have  been  able  to  pile  up  through  arduous 
months  or  years.  No  matter  how  honest  and 
worthy  his  character,  no  matter  how  thrifty  and 


8  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

ordinarily  independent,  the  Average  Man,  witiiout 
property  wliicli  might  be  mortgaged,  found  no  one 
willing  to  lend  money  to  him  but  the  loan  shark 
and  pawnbroker. 

Mr.  Corcoran  looked  about  him  and  made  a 
study  of  the  loan  shark  and  his  client.  Birming- 
ham doubtless  in  that  day  was  no  worse  than 
many  another  large  industrial  city  in  the  vicious 
character  of  its  loan  shark  problem,  and  certainly 
no  worse  than  scores  of  cities  at  the  present  time, 
where  no  adequate  effort  has  been  made  to  curb 
the  evil  and  institute  a  really  helpful  and  rival 
service. 

He  found  the  office  of  the  usurer  wide  open 
upon  every  corner,  thriving  in  every  office  build- 
ing. Literally  by  the  hundred,  they  squatted  at 
every  point  of  vantage,  preying  like  leeches  upon 
the  worker's  misfortunes  and  necessities,  sucking 
up  the  lifeblood  of  his  earnings,  and  leaving  him 
little  chance  to  escape  from  their  clutches,  once 
he  was  within  their  power. 

The  sight  of  the  nefarious  traffic  sickened  the 
young  investigator.  He  went  about  the  streets, 
watching  the  continual  streams  of  those  who  en- 
tered the  den  of  the  usurer,  noting  the  heavy  lines 
of  worry,  illness  and  sometimes  desperation  in 
their  faces,  with  a  heavy  heart.  He  was  stirred 
as  he  had  never  been  stirred  before,  and  with  all 
his  friendly  nature  he  yearned  to  do  something 
to  help  these  people. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE   IDEA  9 

Gradually  it  was  borne  in  upon  his  mind  that 
there  were  two  distinct  classes  among  those  who 
sought  the  loan  shark's  door;  but  the  one  class 
was  enormously  greater  in  number  than  the 
other. 

The  first  was  made  up  of  the  chronic  borrower, 
the  down-and-outer,  the  potential  deadbeat  and 
the  man  who  was  always  in  hard  luck.  Their 
borrowings  were  of  paltry  sums,  merely  a  few 
dollars  to  tide  them  over  until  payday — their 
excuse  usually  some  insignificant  emergency  which 
received  but  scant  consideration  at  the  loan 
shark's  hands. 

But  the  second  and  far  the  more  numerous 
class,  so  numerous,  Mr.  Corcoran  found,  in  fact, 
as  almost  to  hide  the  drifting  human  derelicts 
from  view,  was  made  up  of  men  and  women 
exactly  like  himself. 

They  came  from  those  great  armies  of  steady 
and  habitually  industrious  workers  employed  in 
the  stores  and  offices,  foundries  and  workshops,  of 
the  great  city.  They  had  homes  of  their  own  in 
many  cases,  children,  and  usually  good  employ- 
ment at  their  profession  or  trade.  They  were 
earnest,  thrifty  citizens,  bent  steadfastly  upon 
the  worthy  ambition  to  get  ahead  in  life,  ordi- 
narily amply  able  to  carry  their  financial  obliga- 
tions. 

But  misfortune  had  fallen  upon  tliem.  Unfore- 
seen emergencies  had  developed  in  their  lives  and 


10  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

daily  fortunes.  Thrown  suddenly  into  debt 
through  illness,  death  in  the  family,  temporary 
unemplojanent,  or  other  mishap,  in  their  un- 
familiar and  sometimes  desperate  trouble  they 
had  no  recourse  save  the  charity  of  friends  or  the 
hard  conditions  of  the  loan  shark. 

Perhaps  there  had  once  been  a  small  bank 
account,  which  was  long  since  entirely  used  up. 
Perhaps  there  were  payments  being  made  on  a 
home,  and  these  had  already  become  overdue. 
Perhaps  there  lay  in  the  books  of  the  doctor,  the 
hospital  and  the  merchants  who  had  supplied  them 
with  the  necessaries  of  life,  bills  which  had  ac- 
cumulated through  long  months  of  ill-fortune,  and 
which  the  borrower  now  sought  to  clear  off  be- 
cause he  was  an  honest  man. 

Because  he  was  an  honest  man! 

In  that  moment,  as  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
J.  C.  Corcoran  got  the  essence  of  the  great  idea 
upon  which  he  was  eventually  to  build  the  won- 
derful Trustees  System  Service  for  honest  men 
and  women. 

For  it  was  plain  that  the  Honest  Man  must 
be  the  foundation  of  the  loan  shark's  profitable 
business,  as  well  as  that  of  every  other.  If  the 
loan  shark  had  to  depend  upon  the  chronic  bor- 
rower, the  down-and-outer  and  the  deadbeat  for 
any  appreciable  portion  of  his  gains,  he  could 
not  remain  in  business  long. 

In  fact,  it  has  always  been  the  vociferous  claim 


THE  MAN  AND   THE   IDEA  11 

of  the  money  shark  that  it  is  because  of  losses 
sustained  through  loans  made  to  "deadbeats" 
that  he  cannot  do  business  except  at  usurious 
rates.  He  confidently  depends  upon  recouping 
these  small  and  occasional  losses  out  of  the  fat 
profits  taken  from  the  payments  faithfully  made 
to  him  by  the  Man  of  Honor. 

But  J.  C.  Corcoran,  in  that  swift,  illuminating 
moment,  saw  the  tremendous  possibilities  of  a 
service  that  should  reach  out  to  serve  only  honest 
men.  It  should  be  so  organized  that  it  would  make 
its  appeal  directly  to  the  thrifty,  industrious,  con- 
scientious citizen  whom  we  know  in  America  as 
"The  Man  who  Works." 

Mr.  Corcoran  believed  absolutely  in  the  sin- 
cerity and  dependability  of  this  man.  He  was 
confident,  not  only  that  a  liberal,  just  and  non- 
usurious  loans  service  could  be  provided  for  him, 
but  that  when  this  was  done  the  worker  himself 
would  respond  in  the  full  spirit  in  which  such 
service  was  offered,  meet  fairness  and  sympathy 
with  an  equal  understanding  and  honor,  and  that 
a  mutually  friendly,  helpful  and  profitable  busi- 
ness would  be  the  certain  and  triumphant  result. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Vision  op  Service 

IT  is  evident  to  any  thinking  man  that  the  usual 
banking  house  is  a  class  institution.    Its  offer 

of  service  is  only  to  those  who  already  have 
acquired  a  goodly  portion  of  the  wealth  of  the 
world.  Some  form  of  mortgageable  property, 
either  real  property,  stocks  or  bonds,  deposits  in 
banks,  or  the  assets  of  a  going  business,  must  be 
presented  to  it  before  credit  will  be  extended  to 
any  borrower. 

Nor  is  the  savings  bank  essentially  outside  the 
same  narrow  class  circle.  While  it  readily  re- 
ceives the  savings  of  the  smallest  wage  earner, 
none  of  the  total  of  its  savings  fund  is  available 
to  anyone  who  cannot  present  mortgageable  col- 
lateral in  a  ratio  of  at  least  two  for  one. 

There  is  no  intent  here,  however,  to  pick  a 
quarrel  either  with  banks  or  their  methods  of 
operation.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  plain  that  class 
banks  are  necessary.  The  institution  that  might 
be  planned  to  serve  perfectly  both  the  wealthy 
financial  interests  of  an  average  American  com- 
munity and  also  the  far  greater  mass  of  smaller 
men  and  women,  would  have  to  be  a  colossal  affair, 
beyond  the  scope  of  anj'lhing  hitherto  planned  or 
imagined. 

12 


THE  VISION  OF  SERVICE  13 

But  for  every  person  to  whom  the  ordinary 
banking  house  extends  its  loans  service,  there  are 
probably  ten  others  who  could  use  such  a  service 
to  their  advantage,  if  only  it  were  available  to 
them. 

Even  a  casual  glance  at  figures  covering  the 
distribution  of  wealth  in  the  United  States  will 
enable  anyone  to  realize  this  fact.  Of  the  total 
wealth  in  our  country  in  1921,  estimated  to  be 
300  billions  of  dollars,  ninety-five  per  cent  of  it, 
or  more  than  285  billions,  was  owned  by  but  five 
per  cent  of  the  people. 

Conversely,  therefore,  the  great  ninety-five 
per  cent  of  the  people  owned  only  15  billions  of 
the  total  wealth.  Reduced  to  individual  figures 
among  the  105  millions  of  people  who  in  that  year 
went  to  make  up  the  ninety-five  per  cent  of  our 
country's  citizens,  we  see  that  the  average  wealth 
of  the  individual  was  then  less  than  $150. 

But  wealth,  even  among  this  great  ninety-five 
per  cent,  is  not  distributed  evenly.  There  are 
many  human  derelicts  to  whom  a  dollar  is  only 
something  to  be  spent  as  soon  as  possible.  These 
always  have  been  drifters,  and  they  always  will 
be.  Money  gravitates  into  the  hands  of  those 
who  realize  its  value  and  who  have  a  thrifty  con- 
cern for  the  sound  upbuilding  of  their  fortunes. 

Fortunately  the  great  mass  of  our  country's 
citizens  are  of  this  latter  class.  They  are  neither 
the  beastly  rich  nor  the  abjectly  poor.    They  are 


14  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

intelligent,  self-respecting,  earnest  men  and 
women,  industrious,  steady  workers,  upon  whom 
the  present  greatness  of  our  nation  has  been  built 
and  its  future  may  safely  depend. 

Although  they  have  no  great  quantity  of 
wealth,  each  one  of  them  is  in  the  way  of  becoming 
a  man  of  means.  They  are  little  financiers,  with 
the  steadfast  ambition  to  grow  bigger  than  they 
are.  Many  of  them  are  young,  with  all  the  hopes 
and  confidence  of  youth,  eager  to  establish  homes 
and  firesides  of  their  own.  They  have  their 
wages,  their  brains,  sometimes  even  a  little  sum 
laid  by  in  the  savings  bank.  Daily  in  increasing 
thousands  they  throng  to  and  from  their  work, 
their  minds  bent  upon  honest  service,  their  hearts 
and  energies  reaching  out  in  all  directions  for 
growth  and  greater  opportunity. 

Yet  not  one — or,  at  least,  scarcely  one — in  a 
thousand  of  these  worthy  people,  either  in  time 
of  adversity  or  of  opportunity,  alike,  can  find 
credit  accommodation  at  any  bank. 

It  was  the  dream  of  J.  C.  Corcoran  to  bring 
to  everyone  of  these  splendid  men  and  women  a 
broad  and  really  helpful  money  service  which 
should  adequately  and  peculiarly  fit  their  needs. 
His  vision  comprehended  a  remarkable  class  bank, 
at  which  * '  The  Man  who  Works ' '  should  find  both 
a  loans  and  a  thrift  service  paralleling  in  every 
way  that  enjoyed  by  the  business  man  in  his  own 
commercial  bank. 


THE  VISION  OF   SERVICE  15 

His  great  Plan,  in  fact,  embraced  an  entirely 
new  and  revolutionary  arrangement  of  financial 
service.  He  saw  the  end  of  that  day  when  any 
community  must  center  its  progressive  life  solely 
about  any  single  bank  or  group  of  banks,  whose 
favor  might  be  extended  to  a  limited  few,  while 
the  vast  majority  of  the  people  went  entirely 
unconsidered  and  unserved.  Instead,  he  had  the 
courage  to  plan  for  a  community  where  there 
might  be  two  vast  financial  influences,  the  one 
properly  serving  men  of  wealth  and  the  interests 
of  Big  Business,  but  the  other  reaching  out  with 
sympathy  and  understanding  into  the  multitudes 
of  smaller  homes  of  men  and  women  who  work 
and  serving  and  helping  the  people. 

Being  frankly  devoted  to  the  service  of 
workers — of  average  men  and  women — this  "In- 
dustrial Bank"  should  in  every  way  consult  their 
own  special  interests.  Its  organization,  plan  of 
finance,  methods  of  operation,  its  very  character 
of  thought  and  conduct,  should  be  solely  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  worker.  And  its  actual  serv- 
ice should  be  the  most  liberal,  easy  and  personally 
helpful  to  the  borrower  that  sound  business  prin- 
ciples, the  safety  and  integrity  of  the  institution, 
and  a  decent  profit  upon  the  money  invested  would 
allow. 

Realizing  that  any  unselfish  and  idealistic  pro- 
gram, such  as  he  proposed,  would  of  necessity  find 
small  favor  with  that  type  of  financial  mind  whicli 


16  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

seeks  the  greatest  possible  profit  under  the  law, 
Mr.  Corcoran  turned  confidently  to  the  workers 
themselves  for  encouragement.  His  eager  mind 
conceived  a  great  co-operative  association  of  these 
workers,  who  should  finance  with  their  small  sav- 
ings their  own  credit  system  for  loans  service. 

The  details  of  this  unusual  financial  plan  will 
be  dealt  with  in  their  proper  place,  with  all  the 
remarkable  interest  and  value  they  deserve;  but 
it  should  be  recorded  here  with  emphasis  that 
Mr.  Corcoran  found  among  the  people  a  sympathy 
and  a  readiness  to  support  his  undertaking,  which 
far  exceeded  the  modest  hopes  he  originally  en- 
tertained of  such  co-operation. 

The  actual  plan  of  his  Industrial  Bank  was 
modeled,  for  stability  and  strength,  as  nearly  as 
possible  along  the  lines  of  the  usual  national  and 
commercial  bank,  but  its  methods  were  far  more 
liberal  in  almost  every  way.  The  ideal  held  con- 
stantly before  his  mind  was  a  loans  service  with- 
out the  shadow  of  usury,  and  which  should  effec- 
tively rea«h  and  serve  as  many  of  the  people  as 
possible. 

Therefore  no  mortgage,  assignment  of  wages 
or  property  collateral  of  any  kind  was  to  be  asked 
of  any  borrower.  Loans  in  moderate  amount 
were  to  be  offered  to  any  man  or  woman  who  was 
steadily  employed  and  whose  reputation  for  in- 
tegrity— whose  simple  honesty — was  unquestioned 
in  the  community  where  he  might  reside. 


THE  VISION  OF  SERVICE  17 

Thus  character  and  earning  capacity  were  to 
be  the  two  single  requirements.  Honesty  was  the 
real  security.  Mr.  Corcoran 's  abiding  faith  in  the 
fundamental  sincerity  of  average  men  and  women 
was  to  be  put  to  the  test  as  the  basis  for  a  great 
loans  service. 

He  planned  to  determine  this  question  of  char- 
acter through  a  careful  system  of  credit  reports ; 
and  when  it  should  be  established  that  the  in- 
dividual was  to  be  trusted,  and  that  his  employ- 
ment was  such  as  to  enable  him  eventually  to  re- 
pay the  debt,  the  loan  should  then  be  made  as 
readily  as  a  sale  might  be  over  a  merchant's  coun- 
ter; provided  only,  of  course,  that  the  money  re- 
quired was  to  be  used  for  a  worthy  purpose. 

Moreover,  time-payment  privileges  were  to  be 
extended  so  easy  as  to  fit  the  convenience  and 
income  of  any  borrower.  Loans  were  to  be 
scheduled  over  an  entire  year,  or  more,  as  the 
borrower  might  elect;  and  as  these  partial  pay- 
ments were  promptly  met  on  the  due  dates,  sav- 
ings interest  was  to  be  allowed  at  the  current 
bank  rate  upon  them. 

But  the  scope  of  this  unusual  service  was  to 
go  even  further  than  this.  The  single  end  and 
aim  of  this  Industrial  Bank  was  to  be  a  genuinely 
helpful,  unselfish  service,  in  no  case  a  handicap 
or  a  burden.  Care  should  therefore  be  taken  to 
see  that  no  borrower,  through  a  mistaken  sense 
of  ability  or  pride,  should  in  any  case  contract  to 

2 — June — 21 


18  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

make  larger  installment  payments  than  might 
readily  be  handled  out  of  the  margin  left  from 
his  usual  wages  or  salary.  To  this  end,  before 
any  loan  was  attempted,  a  careful  schedule  of  the 
borrower's  income  and  maximum  expenses  was  to 
be  made  out  through  consultation  with  the  bor- 
rower. 

Thus  men  and  women  were  to  be  helped,  un- 
obtrusively and  sincerely,  through  giving  them 
liberal  and  dignified  opportunities  to  help  them- 
selves. The  loans  service  proposed  was  to  be  in 
spirit  and  in  fact  a  real  Thrift  service.  The 
vicious  and  notorious  business  of  the  money  shark 
should  be  fought  with  the  golden  weapons  of 
truth,  fair  dealing  and  honesty. 


CHAPTER  III 

A  Story  of  Progress 

FOR  the  practical  carrying  out  of  this  great 
plan  of  service,  Mr.  Corcoran  took  a  single 
small  office  on  a  modest  floor  of  the  First 
National  Bank  Building,  in  Birmingham. 

It  has  been  aptly  said  that  this  office  contained 
little  more  equipment  than  ''a  desk,  a  chair,  and 
a  big  idea. ' '  But  the  man  at  the  desk  had  youth 
and  enthusiasm,  and  he  also  had  a  splendid  con- 
fidence in  the  worth  and  ultimate  success  of  the 
business  of  service  which  he  proposed  to  establish. 

It  is  a  well  known  and  singular  fact  that  the 
world  has  almost  always  looked  askance  at  the 
ideas  of  genius.  New  things  are  a  good  deal  of 
a  shock  to  people  who  are  comfortably  settled  in 
their  ways.  The  more  special  knowledge  a  man 
may  have  on  any  subject,  the  more  reluctant  he 
always  is  to  acknowledge  that  any  better  way  of 
doing  a  thing  ever  can  be  found. 

Nor  did  Mr.  Corcoran,  when  he  presented  his 
scheme  for  a  great  Industrial  Bank,  discover  any 
failure  in  the  application  of  this  general  rule. 
It  was  a  plan  that  startled  capital.  Instead  of 
realizing  promptly  that  a  stable  and  widely  in- 
fluential Bank  of  the  People  must  prove  to  be  an 
additional  power  in  the  upbuilding  and  progress 
of  all  the  community,  there  were  some  financial 

19 


20  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

interests  which  chose  for  a  time  to  see  in  the  new 
plan  only  an  obstacle  to  their  own  larger  develop- 
ment and  profit. 

Fortunately  all  this  wholly  mistaken  opposi- 
tion has  long  since  disappeared.  Men  of  every 
kind  have  come  to  understand  that  the  Industrial 
Bank  has  filled  a  long  felt  want  in  the  life  of  every 
community  where  it  has  been  established,  and  that 
it  supplies  a  vital  and  diversified  service  to  aver- 
age men  and  women  which  the  usual  banking  house 
never  could  attempt. 

Bankers  today  are  frequently  among  the  first 
to  send  to  the  Industrial  Bank  clients  for  loans 
service  whom  they  have  been  unable  to  supply; 
and  through  a  mutual  respect  and  appreciation  of 
dignified  service  a  substantial  bond  of  real  co- 
operation has  been  drawn  between  them. 

Birmingham,  in  1914,  however,  held  many  men 
of  wealth  who  professed  to  find  far  more  serious 
flaws  in  the  new  banking  plan  than  any  mere 
rivalry  for  business.  They  said,  in  the  first  place, 
that  money  to  finance  the  enterprise  never  could 
be  found;  and  in  the  second  place,  if  sufficient 
capital  ever  should  be  discovered  to  start  such  a 
visionary  and  plainly  impractical  scheme  of  loans 
service,  the  business  structure  must  soon  fall  to 
the  ground  of  its  own  weight,  because  men  and 
women  without  mortgageable  property  were  not 
to  be  trusted  with  money! 

Only  a  ''Dreamer  of  dreams,"  they  said,  ever 


A   STORY  OF  PROGRESS  21 

would  propose  to  build  a  great  business  structure 
upon  any  such  unstable  foundation  as  a  simple 
belief  in  men's  honesty. 

But  the  proof  of  the  pudding,  to  quote  a  very 
old  and  homely  proverb,  always  has  been  in  the 
eating  of  it.  When  men  smiled  at  the  ideas  of 
J.  C.  Corcoran  in  that  spring  of  1914,  they  did 
not  comprehend  that  they  were  attempting  to  dis- 
count one  of  the  most  astute  and  clever  minds  of 
their  generation. 

He  readily  understood  that  attitude  of  venera- 
tion towards  profits  which  usually  controls  the  in- 
vestments of  capital,  and  he  had  no  intention  of 
hampering  the  high  quality  of  his  service  with 
the  sinister  influence  of  any  large  and  powerful 
stockholders. 

His  scheme  of  organization,  therefore,  passed 
completely  by  men  of  wealth,  for  he  rightly 
deemed  them  unnecessary  to  his  purpose.  In- 
stead he  went  directly  to  the  wage  and  salary 
earner,  men  of  moderate  means  but  of  intelligence 
and  solid  character,  whom  he  invited  to  become 
partners  with  him  through  the  investment  of  a 
small  part  of  their  earnings  to  form  the  great 
fund  for  Trustees  System  Service. 

These  men  would  be  able  to  understand  the 
high  faith  which  he  himself  had  in  average  men 
and  women.  They  were,  in  fact,  precisely  the 
same  kind  of  men  and  women  whom  his  service 
was  meant  to  serve.    They  would  be  more  liberal 


22  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

in  their  ideas  and  expectations  of  the  legitimate 
earnings  of  money,  and  he  might  expect  them, 
not  only  to  be  genuinely  interested  in  the  sei*\'ice, 
but  to  be  inspired  with  a  desire  to  make  truly 
eifective  and  helpful  the  business  in  which  their 
investments  should  be  engaged. 

With  such  broad  conceptions  as  these,  then, 
he  laid  his  original  business  plans.  He  first  in- 
terested a  few  close  friends,  whose  faith  in  him- 
self, perhaps,  w^as  the  principle  influence  which 
drew  their  support,  but  who  nevertheless  could 
deeply  appreciate  the  unusual  character  of  the 
service  he  wished  to  render.  With  these  friends 
as  a  courageous  nucleus  he  formed  his  first  little 
company,  and  then  set  out  to  carry  his  plans  to 
the  people  themselves. 

Nor  was  he  disappointed  with  the  reception  he 
received  at  their  hands.  It  seemed  only  neces- 
sary to  tell  men  the  nature  and  purposes  of  this 
wonderful  service  to  make  them  immediately  sup- 
porters and  friends. 

The  borrower  instantly  saw  what  great  op- 
portunity it  offered  him  for  financial  betterment. 
The  merchant  and  professional  man  perceived 
that  such  an  unusual  service  would  provide  count- 
less easy  ways  for  the  honest  debtor  to  clear  off 
obligations  which  chafed  his  pride  and  sense  of 
independence.  And  the  financier  and  man  of  pub- 
lic spirit  recognized  in  Trustees  System  Service 
another  vital  force,  like  themselves,  working  along 


A  STORY  OF  PROGRESS  23 

broad  and  constructive  lines  for  the  solid  better- 
ment of  all  the  people  in  the  community. 

The  financial  phases  of  the  plan  also  appealed 
to  men  as  a  sound  and  profitable  undertaking. 
They  realized  that  the  organization,  under  skill- 
ful management,  should  have  no  difficulty  in  mak- 
ing profits  in  ways  precisely  similar  to  those  of 
national  and  commercial  banks. 

Moreover,  it  was  plain  that  a  company  of  such 
shareholding  partners,  each  of  whom,  from  a  per- 
sonal point  of  view,  was  so  closely  and  vitally  in- 
terested in  the  business,  must  be  bound  together 
in  a  manner  the  most  truly  and  effectively  co- 
operative, and  that  results  therefore  should  be 
correspondingly  great. 

Thus  success  attended  the  enterprise,  even 
beyond  the  confident  hopes  of  Mr.  Corcoran  and 
his  early  associates.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  year  1914  was  the  first  of  the  great  World 
War,  and  that  many  a  fair  business  which  might 
seem  to  have  had  every  chance  for  stability  and 
certain  growth,  nevertheless  crumpled  up  and 
disappeared  before  the  tempest  that  swept  that 
dark  financial  sky.  Truly  it  was  a  time  that  tried 
the  souls  of  business  and  of  men,  and  nothing 
could  better  gauge  the  caliber  of  a  young  and 
experimental  company  than  this  test  of  supreme 
endurance. 

But  Trustees  System  Service  not  only  sur- 
vived, it  grew  through  the  storm  with  an  aston- 


24  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

isliing  assurance  and  vigor.  Friends  multiplied, 
shareholders  among  the  earnest,  thrifty  workers 
of  the  community  leaped  in  number  from  hun- 
dreds to  thousands.  Business  and  professional 
men  voluntarily  came  strongly  to  its  support,  and 
every  financial  interest  soon  realized  a  worthy 
partnership  with  it  in  stabilizing  the  best  interests 
of  all  the  industrial  life. 

Within  the  year  the  original  little  business 
office  was  far  outgrown,  and  the  System  moved 
into  the  first  of  its  spacious  ground  floor  loca- 
tions on  First  Avenue.  This,  however,  was  only 
the  initial  advance,  and  Birmingham  only  the 
beginning  of  the  sturdy  organization  that  was  to 
make  its  consistent  and  triumphant  march  down 
the  years.  Inspired  with  a  consciousness  of  up- 
leaping  power  and  influence,  it  soon  became  evi- 
dent to  the  management  that  it  was  only  the 
part  of  wisdom  to  prepare  for  such  wide  growth 
and  expansion  as  the  first  modest  hopes  of  its 
founders  had  never  dreamed  possible. 

Plans  were  therefore  drawn  for  an  organiza- 
tion of  really  national  importance  and  scope. 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  in  time  was  selected  as  the 
seat  of  the  first  new  Industrial  Banking  branch, 
and  in  the  establishment  of  this  office  an  experience 
very  similar  to  that  in  Binningham  was  enjoyed. 
Both  the  worker  and  the  business  man  rallied  to 
its  support,  and  its  success  was  an  accomplished 
fact  almost  from  the  first  day  of  its  existence. 


A  STORY  OF  PROGRESS  25 

Thence  the  organization  spread  rapidly  to 
Indianapolis,  and  beyond  that,  in  time,  to  Chicago. 
But  it  would  be  only  a  story  of  infinite  repetition 
to  record  how  each  new  office  was  established 
and  advanced  in  power  of  service  and  financial 
strength.  In  every  case  success  Avas  built  on  that 
honest  faith  in  the  integrity  of  the  worker  which 
inspired  the  founder  of  the  great  service  in  the 
first  days  of  his  vision  in  Birmingham ;  and  in  no 
instance  was  it  ever  necessary  to  limit  the  liberal 
terms  and  methods  he  had  established. 

Opportunity  was  sought,  on  the  contrary,  in 
all  possible  ways  to  make  the  service  only  the 
more  easy  and  attractive  to  average  men  and 
women.  The  move  into  the  vast  field  of  Chicago 
offered  the  System  probably  the  most  splendid 
opportunity  of  its  career. 

This  is  the  nation's  greatest  industrial  city. 
Its  wide  districts  teem  with  the  prolific  energy  of 
factory  and  office,  warehouse,  foundry  and  mill. 
From  end  to  end  on  the  south  and  north,  and 
from  the  lake  far  out  into  the  western  horizon, 
stand  the  homes  of  the  workers  in  these  industries, 
crowding  one  upon  another,  endlessly,  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  little  households. 

They  are  the  homes  of  "Men  and  Women  who 
Work,"  whose  earnings  are  measured  in  the  form 
of  weekly  wages  or  salaries.  Everyone  of  them 
is  a  potential  friend  and  user  of  Trustees  System 
Service ! 


26  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

Two  flourishing  offices  had  already  been  es- 
tablished here,  but  with  the  opening  of  the  re- 
markable year  1920  a  new  vision  dawned  for  the 
great  service  organization.  Encouraged  by  mul- 
tiplying successes  and  by  the  rapid  stabilization 
of  general  business  conditions  after  the  war,  a  far- 
reaching  plan  of  expansion  was  begun.  The  es- 
sence of  this  new  plan  is  to  place  a  Neighborhood 
Industrial  Bank  in  every  industrial  center,  in 
every  busy  community  of  workers,  across  the 
whole  of  this  great  city. 

Five  new"  branch  Industrial  Banks  were  there- 
fore planned  immediately  and  carried  into  com- 
plete organization  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
year  1920.  They  are  located  as  points  upon  a 
great  circle,  scattered  north,  northwest,  west, 
southwest  and  far  south,  so  that  they  are  fairly 
representative  of  what  the  Chicago  organization 
is  planned  to  be,  and  with  the  two  original 
branches  in  the  loop  and  the  southwest  form  the 
framew^ork  for  that  vast  network  of  service  sta- 
tions which  the  future  years  mil  undoubtedly  see. 

Chicago  is  a  city  of  2,700,000  people.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  there  are  more  than  540,000  individual 
homes.  The  achievement  of  this  splendid  plan 
calls  for  a  friendly  blanket  of  service,  which  shall 
be  thrown  over  the  whole  of  this  vast  community 
and  bring  close  to  the  fireside  of  every  ''Man  who 
Works"  an  assurance  of  sympathy,  understand- 
ing and  real  financial  assistance  in  any  time  either 
of  his  emergency  need  or  greater  opportunity. 


A  STORY  OF  PROGRESS 


27 


I9l4-n,115.94 


I91S-$  38,80148 


1916  -  $61,789.60 


1917  -$141,190.33 


1918  -  $172,782.12 


.'^tteiWa^y"fr4^"< 


LOANS  RECORD  OF  TRUSTEES  SYSTEM  SERVICE 


28  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

And  beyond  these  lie  the  thousand  other  com- 
munities of  our  country  and  nation,  made  up  of 
the  same  kind  of  thrifty,  forward  looking  workers 
and  friends,  who  only  await  the  opening  of  similar 
service  stations  in  their  own  neighborhoods  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  wonderful  opportunities 
these  will  surely  bring. 

For  wherever  there  live  men  and  women, 
wherever  there  are  households  engaged  in  that 
old,  old  struggle  to  w^est  a  little  daily  advantage 
from  the  difficulties  of  work  and  life,  wherever 
there  are  children,  wives  and  husbands  subject  to 
illness  and  the  many  misfortunes  against  which  no 
strength  and  no  loving  foresight  can  shield  them 
or  render  them  immune,  there,  if  opportunity  shall 
ever  be  given  them  to  know  about  it,  you  will  find 
devoted  friends  and  thrifty  users  of  Trustees 
Svstem  Service. 


CHAPTER  IV 

How  Men  Use  the  Service 

THERE  is  an  old  prejudice  in  the  minds  of 
most  people  against  going  into  debt.  It  is 
almost  as  old  as  the  world  itself,  and  dates 
from  that  day  when  the  creditor,  under  the  law, 
had  the  right  not  only  to  seize  the  debtor's  goods, 
but  also  the  man  himself,  and  even  his  wife  and 
family,  and  sell  them  for  the  satisfaction  of  the 
debt. 

Nor  has  it  been  so  very  many  years  since  this 
was  still  the  custom;  for  as  late  as  the  time  of 
Charles  Dickens,  men  and  women  were  thrown 
into  prison  in  England  because  they  could  not  pay 
their  debts. 

It  has  been  a  long  time  since  our  own  splendid 
country  enacted  laws  which  recognized  the  just 
rights  of  liberty  and  of  property  alike,  but  the 
practice  of  usury  has  really  been  little  affected  by 
them.  It  could  not  be  affected  merely  by  passing 
laws.  Only  a  rival  and  powerful  service,  offered 
upon  such  fair  and  liberal  tenns  as  had  never 
been  known  before,  could  expect  to  deprive  usury 
of  any  of  its  victims  or  ease  in  any  adequate 
degree  the  burdens  of  those  driven  to  its  doors 
by  the  lash  of  urgent  need. 

Only  within  very  recent  years,  however,  has 

29 


30  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

any  such  ideal  of  service  dawned  upon  the  con- 
sciousness of  men.  In  the  meantime  the  loan 
shark  and  pawnbroker  have  successfully  plied 
their  trade,  each  year  fastening  upon  new  thou- 
sands of  unfortunate  men  and  women  a  slavery 
only  a  little  less  difficult  to  bear  than  that  of  the 
dark  and  ruthless  ages. 

Eightly,  then,  the  yoke  of  debt  has  been  held 
by  men  in  bitter  fear.  It  is  one  of  the  chains  of 
habit,  born  of  long  experience  of  evil  times.  But 
there  are  two  impulses  of  the  human  heart  today 
stronger  even  than  the  fear  of  debt. 

The  first  is  the  love  a  man  has  for  his  home 
and  fireside.  The  second  is  his  worthy  ambition 
to  win  for  himself  such  a  measure  of  financial 
independence  as  shall  preserve  this  home  and  his 
loved  ones  from  all  peril  of  time  or  adverse 
circumstance. 

These  are  the  twin  forces  that  make  the  world 
go  round.  They  are  behind  every  worthy  per- 
formance, have  been  the  chief  incentives  in  the 
building  of  home,  state  and  nation.  They  are 
the  joint  power  making  for  stabilization,  and  are 
the  single  reason  for  the  steady  march  of  civiliza- 
tion. 

To  put  the  essence  of  it  all  in  a  single  word, 
no  better  can  be  found  than  that  fine  word 
"Thrift."  Under  the  banner  of  Thrift  the  work- 
ers of  the  world  discount  every  old  fear  and  un- 
dertake any  new  endeavor.     The  world  is  being 


HOW  MEN  USE   THE   SERVICE  31 

carried  forward  by  them  faster  today  than  it  ever 
went  before.  They  are  seizing  opportunity  in 
ways  which  no  man  had  ever  imagined  pos- 
sible, and  numberless  are  the  devices  and  agencies 
which  are  being  found  to  help  them  build  their 
lives  with  newer  strength,  security  and  larger 
happiness. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  these  new  means  to 
Thrift  is  the  co-operative  Industrial  Bank,  such 
as  has  been  established  under  the  name  of  Trus- 
tees System  Service.  With  every  passing  day 
men  come  to  fuller  understanding  of  the  value  of 
this  broad  Thrift  service.  The  little  business  that 
was  started  as  a  ''visionary"  and  so-called  "ex- 
periment" has  taken  its  place  as  one  of  the  largely 
helpful  institutions  of  our  country,  bringing  count- 
less opportunities  to  "The  Man  who  Works"  in 
each  of  the  many  communities  where  it  has  been 
established. 

There  is  no  better  way  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion, "How  do  men  use  this  service?"  than  to 
give  some  practical  story  examples  of  interesting 
experiences,  taken  from  the  daily  files  of  the 
Trustees  System  Industrial  Banks. 

In  Birmingham  there  was  a  young  mechanic 
who  had  been  "up  against  it"  for  a  long  time.  A 
severe  illness  of  his  own  had  forced  him  to  quit 
work  for  months,  and  no  sooner  had  he  returned 
to  the  foundry  than  his  wife  was  taken  to  the 
liospital  for  a  serious  operation.     This  was  ex- 


32  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

pensive,  his  small  savings  were  swept  away,  and 
he  still  found  himself  owing  the  doctor,  grocer, 
butcher,  almost  everyone  with  whom  he  did  busi- 
ness at  all. 

Feeling  that  his  credit  standing  in  the  com- 
munity was  almost  irreparably  ruined,  he  went 
about  to  his  creditors  asking  for  time  and  promis- 
ing to  pay  each  debt  as  he  could.  But  his  grocer 
was  a  member  of  the  Trustees  System  organiza- 
tion, and  told  him  about  the  Thrift  Loans  Service. 
By  going  to  the  nearest  Industrial  Bank  he  se- 
cured a  loan  at  moderate  cost  covering  the  entire 
amount  of  his  debts ;  with  this  he  paid  in  full  all 
his  creditors,  and  then  without  any  inconvenience 
slowly  repaid  Trustees  System  in  small  install- 
ments taken  out  of  the  margin  left  from  his  usual 
wages. 

A  young  girl  in  Chicago  had  a  great  talent  for 
music.  But  her  parents  died,  she  had  to  go  to  live 
with  relatives,  and  as  soon  as  she  w^as  old  enough 
was  put  out  to  earn  her  own  living  in  a  factory. 
At  night  she  gave  piano  lessons  to  a  few  pupils 
at  their  homes ;  and  these,  pleased  with  her  talent, 
brought  others,  until  at  length  she  was  able  to 
devote  all  her  time  to  teaching.  But  she  longed 
for  a  studio  of  her  own,  where  there  should  be  a 
beautiful  instrument  responding  with  all  the  soul 
of  music  to  her  touch,  and  where  hundreds  of 
students  should  come  for  lessons  where  now  she 
was  able  to  teach  only  a  score.    By  going  to  Trus- 


HOW  MEN  USE   THE  SERVICE  33 

tees  System  and  taking  advantage  of  its  Service 
this  vision  became  an  accomplished  fact,  and  she 
was  able  to  repay  her  loan  with  ease. 

The  advantage  of  ready  cash  with  which  to 
purchase  and  secure  discounts  is  a  common  reason 
heard  for  loans  in  Trustees  System  offices.  A 
carpenter  of  Chicago  secured  the  money  with 
which  to  buy  the  sewing  machine  he  wanted  to 
give  his  wife  at  Christmas.  Another  mechanic 
eased  the  drudgery  of  w^ashing  of  all  its  heavy 
backache  through  the  purchase  of  a  modern  elec- 
tric washing  machine.  Every  day  furniture  is 
bought  somewhere  by  young  people  who,  having 
the  courage  to  join  their  lives  in  some  happy  little 
flat  or  cottage,  secure  the  furnishings  through  the 
means  of  a  Trustees  System  loan,  which  can  then 
be  paid  out  of  their  joint  earnings  carefully  saved 
from  month  to  month. 

A  bank  clerk  had  saved  enough  money  to  start 
his  son  in  college.  But  fire  destroyed  his  home, 
which  w^as  not  insured  for  enough  to  cover  all 
replacement  costs.  For  a  time  it  seemed  the  boy 
would  have  to  give  up  his  education,  at  least  for 
a  year  or  two;  but  the  father  heard  of  Trustees 
System  Service,  investigated,  and  through  one  of 
its  Cliaracter  loans  was  able  to  send  his  son  back 
to  the  university  on  the  appointed  day. 

A  professor  of  history  in  the  high  school  found 
his  salary  barely  sufficient  to  provide  necessities 
and  a  little  pleasure  now  and  then.    When  the 


34  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

second  tiny  baby  arrived  in  his  home  his  joy  was 
clouded  with  apprehension,  for  there  seemed  noth- 
ing to  do  to  meet  the  emergency  but  resort  to  the 
pawnbroker.  He  gathered  on  the  top  of  his  desk 
his  watch,  his  cuff  links,  and  the  engagement  ring 
his  wife  prized  above  all  other  gifts ;  then  he  began 
a  search  through  the  newspaper  for  the  address 
of  a  possible  money  lender.  But  he  never  found 
one.  Instead,  his  eye  lighted  on  the  advertise- 
ment of  Trustees  System  Service,  and  through  the 
Industrial  Bank,  on  the  solid  collateral  of  his 
Character,  he  secured  a  loan  that  enabled  him  to 
pay  his  debts  on  time  and  also  to  preserve  his 
independence  and  self-respect. 

The  service  has  helped  innumerable  men  and 
women  to  buy  their  owm  homes,  through  provid- 
ing a  part  of  the  first  installment  payment  de- 
manded. It  has  provided  the  cost  of  new  roofs, 
of  repainting,  of  installing  furnaces  and  of  making 
additions  and  various  other  improvements. 

A  coal  dealer  in  Chicago  instituted  a  popular 
partnership  with  the  Industrial  Bank  by  securing 
its  assistance  for  hundreds  of  people  who  realized 
the  thrift  of  laying  in  winter  supplies  of  coal  dur- 
ing summer  months  w^hen  the  price  was  very  low. 

There  is  a  church  in  Louisville,  a  large  part 
of  the  cost  of  which  was  financed  through  the  aid 
of  the  Trustees  System  Industrial  Bank.  Pay- 
ments on  the  mortgage  were  to  be  promptly  met. 
The  people  gathered  together,  each  indicated  w^hat 


HOW  MEN  USE  THE  SERVICE  35 

part  of  the  total  sum  needed  he  would  be  willing 
to  assume,  and  loans  were  then  arranged  through 
Trustees  System  covering  each  of  these  amounts. 

A  private  secretary  in  Chicago  attributes  her 
present  responsible  position  and  large  salary  to 
the  fact  that  a  Trustees  System  Thrift  loan  sup- 
plied her  with  means  to  attend  a  business  college 
and  so  secure  the  education  which  started  her 
career. 

There  is  another  young  woman,  living  in  a 
suburban  home,  who  financed  her  family  out  of 
serious  difficulties  in  an  unusual  way.  Her  father 
had  died,  leaving  little  more  than  a  mortgage; 
but  there  was  still  a  home  and  a  few  acres  left 
out  of  what  had  once  been  a  flourishing  farm  on 
the  border  of  the  city.  She  was  intelligent,  ener- 
getic, and  held  a  position  of  trust  in  the  business 
office  of  a  great  factory.  She  racked  her  brain  for 
some  way  in  which  she  could  make  additional 
money  to  keep  her  mother  in  the  old  home.  At 
length  she  borrowed  a  sum  from  Trustees  System 
which  enabled  her  to  purchase  several  cows,  and 
with  these  she  installed  a  dairy  which  was  tended 
by  two  of  her  young  brothers.  Within  a  few  years 
she  not  only  paid  off  the  loan  to  Trustees  System, 
but  her  energetic  management  of  the  business 
made  profits  which  eventually  cleared  off  the 
mortgage  as  well. 

Many  a  man  has  bought  a  business  with  which 
he  was  familiar  through   the  assistance  of  the 


36  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

Trustees  System  Industrial  Bank.  A  case  in 
point  is  that  of  a  ladder  man  in  the  city  fire  de- 
partment. He  was  awarded  a  cash  prize  for  ex- 
ceptional bravery,  and  this  opened  up  to  him  the 
possibility  of  purchasing  a  little  grocery  and 
delicatessen  business.  With  some  help  from 
Trustees  System  he  was  entirely  successful. 
While  his  thrifty  wife  conducted  the  little  store, 
he  retained  his  job  at  the  fire  house  until  the 
loan  was  repaid. 

Another  young  man,  returning  from  school  to 
help  his  father  with  an  old  established  business 
in  Birmingham,  and  realizing  that  the  store 
needed  many  modern  appointments  and  better 
methods  to  make  it  largely  profitable,  got  the 
money  through  the  Industrial  Bank  to  carry  out 
the  new  plans  with  entire  success. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Trustees  System 
Service  may  be  of  advantage  to  any  man  or 
woman,  no  matter  what  his  station  in  life  may  be. 
The  examples  cited  are  offered  only  as  typical 
cases,  and  fall  far  short  of  adequately  covering 
the  wide  range  of  instances  in  which  the  Indus- 
trial Bank  daily  serves  its  clients  and  friends. 

They  come  to  the  office  of  Trustees  System 
Service,  asking  loans  for  a  multitude  of  things, 
almost  everything,  in  fact,  for  which  money  may 
be  used  advantageously  at  all;  and  no  one  is 
turned  away  who  has  a  real  legitimate  need  of 
money  service,  and  who  can  qualify  in  the  two 


HOW  MEN  USE   THE  SERVICE  37 

simple  requirements  of  personal  honesty  and  an 
earning  capacity  sufficient  to  insure  repayment 
of  the  loan. 


CHAPTER  V 

Character  a  Sound  Collateral 

1%  TO  truer  saying  can  be  found  than  this,  that 
\  what  a  man  goes  about  looking  for  in  others, 
what  he  expects  to  find,  that  he  most  surely 
will  find.  The  world  is  a  mirror  in  which  we  see 
the  likeness  of  our  own  thoughts,  incentives  and 
actions. 

Hatred  begets  hatred ;  love  inspires  love.  Sus- 
picion and  distrust  are  worthy  of  no  other  ad- 
versaries. Truth,  sincerity,  confidence,  trust,  are 
really  the  basic  sentiments  of  every  human  heart. 

J.  C.  Corcoran  has  always  held  some  deep  and 
rugged  beliefs  concerning  Character.  He  believes 
that  the  average  man  and  woman  are  fundamen- 
tally honest.  He  holds  that  the  human  heart  or- 
dinarily loves  truth  and  sincerity.  Where  lower 
instincts  of  men's  natures  are  in  control,  they  are 
usually  inspired  by  fear,  and  by  that  old  primi- 
tive distrust  of  self  which  comes  from  knowledge 
that  the  individual  has  often  had  to  fight  to  live. 

Given,  then,  a  fair  and  even  chance  among  the 
vicissitudes  of  life,  the  Average  Man  almost  al- 
w^ays  will  prove  himself  worthy  of  confidence  and 
trust. 

It  is  a  noble  conception  of  Character ;  but  it  is 
nothing  new  in  the  world.     Had  the  lower,  evil 

38 


CHARACTER  A  SOUND  COLLATERAL       39 

instincts  of  mankind  been  in  control,  civilization 
never  could  have  made  the  tremendous  strides 
forward  that  it  has.  The  fact  is  that  mankind  has 
progressed  just  to  that  degree  in  which  confidence 
and  trust  in  fellowmen  have  been  established  in 
the  world. 

Every  transaction  of  business  turns  upon  a 
belief  in  the  sincerity  of  some  individual.  It  is 
unavoidable,  for  if  the  question  of  credit  never 
arises,  still  the  real  honesty  of  goods  or  of  services 
always  lies  in  the  balance.  It  was  so  when  ancient 
nomadic  tribes  bartered  their  herds  on  far  eastern 
plains,  and  it  is  so  today  when  the  parcel  of 
goods  is  exchanged  for  money  over  the  mer- 
chant's counter. 

Credit  is  usually  held  to  be  the  great  test  of 
Character,  but  it  is  not  so  wonderful  as  it  seems. 
For  credit  symbolizes  simple  honesty,  and  honesty 
is  not  the  exception,  but  the  rule.  Credit  would 
be  extended  far  more  often  than  it  is  if  men  could 
realize  truer  conceptions  of  their  fellows. 

Some  years  ago  J.  P.  Morgan,  the  elder, 
startled  the  financial  world  by  saying  that  he  had 
that  day  loaned  a  man  a  million  dollars  without 
a  penny  of  collateral. 

But  J.  P.  Morgan  shrewdly  knew  that  he  held 
the  best  collateral  in  the  world  to  secure  this 
loan — he  had  tlie  man's  Character. 

At  all  times  the  banks  of  our  country  liave 
many  millions  of  dollars  out  in  loans  whicli  are 


40  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

secured  principally  by  Character.  Of  course,  tliey 
hold  notes  of  individuals,  and  statements  of  going 
businesses,  but  the  fundamental  dependence,  after 
all,  upon  v.-hich  they  base  their  contidence  that  the 
loans  will  be  repaid  is  a  belief  in  the  honesty  and 
the  ability  to  pay  of  men  themselves. 

The  difference  between  the  idea  of  credit  as 
exemplified  in  the  usual  national  and  commercial 
hank  and  as  it  works  out  in  the  Industrial  Bank 
is  scarcely  a  real  difference  at  all.  It  is  measured 
more  by  the  size  of  loans  than  by  methods  of  any 
consequence.  Just  as  credit  is  extended  to  the 
business  man  upon  knowledge  of  his  Character 
and  evidence  of  the  assets  of  his  business,  so  in 
the  Industrial  Bank  credit  is  extended  the  small 
borrower  upon  his  proven  reputation  for  integrity 
in  the  conmaunity  and  a  knowledge  of  his  regular 
earning  capacity. 

The  Industrial  Bank  recognizes  that  there  is 
no  essential  difference  between  the  two  men.  Each 
is  controlled  by  the  same  hopes,  ambitions  and 
fears,  is  steadied  and  strengthened  by  the  same 
principles  of  conduct,  has  relatively  as  much  to 
gain  or  lose  as  the  other. 

The  difficulty,  if  difficulty  it  may  be  called,  met 
by  the  Industrial  Bank  in  its  system  of  credit 
extension  comes  from  the  necessity  for  a  most 
thorough  and  peculiarly  intimate  credit  informa- 
tion about  the  ludividual. 

Banks   loan   their  funds   principally  to   men 


CHARACTER  A  SOUND  COLLATERAL       41 

wkose  cjedit  standing  and  business  assets  are  well 
knowTi.  The  man  who  cannot  readily  furnish  in- 
dubitable proof  of  his  credit  standing  is  not  ac- 
commodated at  any  bank.  The  bank's  service  is 
distributed  among  a  comparatively  small  group 
of  clients  where  immediate  knowledge  is  to  be 
had  of  any  change  in  the  stability  of  the  loan. 
Close  touch  is  kept  also  through  the  brief  life  of 
each  loan. 

In  the  present  stage  of  Industrial  Banking  in 
America,  it  is  impossible  to  know  quickly  and 
easily  the  credit  standing  of  all  workers.  A  vast 
organization  of  the  Industrial  Banking  system 
must  come  before  any  parallel  covering  credit  in- 
formation could  be  drawn  with  the  national  or 
commercial  bank.  However,  the  future  holds 
many  possibilities  much  more  intricate  than  this, 
and  in  its  proper  place  the  subject  will  be  taken 
up  with  all  the  interest  and  value  it  deserves. 

Industrial  Banking  finds  its  methods  of  secur- 
ing information  upon  the  would-be  borrower  best 
exemplified  by  the  large  mercantile  house,  or  de- 
partment store.  Here  is  a  set  of  conditions  almost 
exactly  parallel  with  small  loans  service. 

The  purchaser  of  goods  asks  credit,  perhaps 
in  the  sum  of  a  few  dollars,  perhaps  to  a  total  of 
several  hundred.  References  are  obtained.  If  the 
sum  is  sufficiently  large,  perhaps  a  note  is  taken 
with  certain  names  in  the  way  of  endorsement,  on 
all  of  which  careful  information  is  secured.    Pres- 


42  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

eiitly  there  is  a  complete  story  on  file,  giving  a 
composite  picture  of  the  debtor  and  his  friends, 
their  abilities,  their  stations  and  earnings  in  life, 
their  Character  and  prospects. 

Without  this  definite  knowledge  not  a  dollar's 
worth  of  goods  may  be  taken  out  of  the  store. 
But  with  this  knowledge  complete,  confidence  is 
established,  trust  is  given,  because  experience  has 
shown  that  the  man  is  honest! 

Upon  this  broad  and  solid  basis  of  loans  serv- 
ice the  Trustees  System  of  Industrial  Banking 
was  first  erected  in  Birmingham.  It  has  never 
been  changed,  except  to  make  it  even  more  liberal 
and  recognize  more  broadly  still  that  average  men 
will  meet  any  obligation  of  trust  within  their 
power. 

In  those  early  days  the  System  was  weak  finan- 
cially, was  only  a  struggling  experiment  as  a  busi- 
ness. It  was  located  in  a  city  where  conditions 
for  loans  service  were  considered  even  more 
hazardous  than  usual.  But  it  had  the  courage  to 
loan  every  dollar  that  it  had  available  on  the 
terms  and  conditions  which  its  founders  felt  to 
be  just. 

At  the  end  of  that  first  year  the  men  w^ho  had 
taken  those  loans  were  scattered  in  twenty-six 
states — but  the  installment  payments  contracted 
for  in  their  notes  never  faltered.    They  all  paid  I 

Experience,  therefore,  showed  then,  and  it  has 
steadily  continued  to  show  through  all  the  remark- 


CHARACTER  A  SOUND  COLLATERAL      43 

able  history  of  Trustees  System  Service,  that 
Character  is  a  sound  collateral.  Industrial  Bank- 
ing in  America,  as  exemplified  through  this  great 
service  organization,  may  confidently  place  its 
trust  in  the  honesty  of  average  men  and  women. 
The  workers — the  great  ninety  per  cent  of  our 
country's  citizens — wherever  they  have  had  the 
opportunity  to  use  this  service,  have  responded 
in  the  full  spirit  in  which  the  service  was  offered 
to  them. 

Today  in  everyone  of  the  chain  of  Trustees 
System  Industrial  Banks  moderate  loans  are  regu- 
larly made  to  men  and  women  on  the  simple  col- 
lateral of  Character. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Modern  Industrial  Bank 

MENTION  already  lias  been  made,  not  only 
that  the  usual  banking  house  is  a  class  in- 
stitution, but  that  such  class  banks  are  both 
wise  and  necessary.  Although  limited  in  scope 
through  their  narrow  organization,  these  very 
limitations  make  for  more  effective  and  valuable 
service  to  the  particular  group  of  individuals  they 
may  wish  to  serve. 

In  fact,  although  banks  are  usually  spoken  of 
as  falling  into  two  large  general  classes — first,  the 
great  institutions,  commercial  in  character,  serv^- 
ing  the  interests  of  big  and  little  business,  and 
second,  the  industrial  banks  or  associations 
planned  broadly  to  serve  the  interests  of  average 
men  and  women — the  first  is  subdivided  further 
still. 

To  mention  only  a  few  groups,  there  are  the 
Cotton  banks  of  the  south  which  make  a  special 
study  of  the  vast  planters'  interests;  the  Drovers' 
banks  of  Chicago  and  other  points  which  render 
a  particular  service  to  cattle  and  live  stock  in- 
terests; and  the  small  State,  or  neighborhood 
banks  scattered  about  in  large  cities  which  reach 
out  to  the  smaller  business  men  of  the  community. 

Still  other  illustrations  are  the  banks  specializ- 
ing in  farm  loans,  established  under  the  Farm 

44 


THE  MODERN  INDUSTRIAL  BANK  45 

Loans  Act ;  and  the  great  Federal  Reserve  Banks, 
which  are  nothing  more  than  institutions  catering 
to  the  peculiar  needs  of  banks  and  bankers  them- 
selves. 

Each  of  these  groups  has  but  one  object  in 
view,  a  fuller  and  better  service  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  the  special  interests  it  serves.  Each 
single  bank  in  each  group  has  identically  the  same 
object,  to  serve  as  completely  as  possible  the 
wants  of  its  own  particular  circle  of  clients. 

These  great  class  banks  have  succeeded  won- 
derfully in  their  object.  Almost  everyone  is  in 
some  degree  familiar  with  the  tremendous  value 
of  the  service  they  render  to  business.  Our 
American  banks  are  approached  in  organization 
and  effectiveness  by  no  others  in  the  world,  and 
it  is  directly  due  to  the  service  so  lavishly  ex- 
tended by  them  that  the  business  interests  of  our 
country  have  been  able  to  reap  their  phenomenal 
successes  of  recent  years. 

Business,  therefore,  the  approximate  ten  per 
cent  of  the  people,  is  amply  served.  It  is  to  bring 
to  the  great  ninety  per  cent  of  the  people  a  similar 
service  that  the  Industrial  Bank  has  been  or- 
ganized. Trustees  System  Service  has  a  potent 
slogan  which  says: 

"WHAT  NATIONAL  BANKS  HAVE3  DONE}  FOR   BIG  BUSINESS, 
TRUSTEES    SYSTEM    IS    DOING    FOR     "THB   MAN  WHO    WORKS.'  " 

The  big  objective  before  the  Industrial  Bank 


46  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

is  such  a  broadly  liberal  money  service  as  shall 
be  fully  as  effective  and  valuable  to  the  average 
man  and  woman  in  building  their  financial  lives 
as  other  class  banks  have  been  to  the  man  who  has 
won  wealth  in  business  life. 

There  is  no  better  way  to  gauge  this  parallel 
service  than  to  inquire  just  what  is  the  service 
which  banks  render  to  business  men. 

The  first  thing  that  the  experienced  and  wise 
business  man  does  upon  moving  into  a  new  com- 
munity is  to  identify  himself  with  at  least  one 
representative  banking  house.  He  may  purchase 
a  few  shares  of  its  stock,  if  these  are  to  be  had, 
in  order  to  make  his  connection  the  more  per- 
sonal. But  he  will  at  least  make  himself  known 
to  the  officers  of  the  institution,  give  them  com- 
plete information  about  his  business,  his  life  and 
resources,  and  thoroughly  establish  his  identity 
in  their  minds. 

He  does  this  because  he  know^s  that  he  will 
soon  have  occasion  to  come  to  this  bank  and  ask 
credit  for  loans  service.  No  man  is  so  big  that 
he  is  able  to  finance  completely  all  of  his  business 
deals  w^ithout  assistance,  and  he  desires  to  be  so 
solidly  established  in  the  confidence  and  friend- 
ship of  his  bank  that  he  can  depend  upon  it  to 
help  him  in  the  day  of  his  emergency. 

In  time,  then,  he  discovers  a  need,  perhaps,  to 
enlarge  his  business,  to  take  advantage  of  dis- 
counts in  the  purchase  of  goods,  to  finance  new 


THE  MODERN  INDUSTRIAL  BANK  47 

fixtures  that  will  aid  in  stimulating  liis  trade ;  or 
perhaps  he  finds  himself  in  some  kind  of  a  diffi- 
culty, where  he  has  sustained  losses  through  fire, 
or  burglary,  or  through  a  sudden  slackness  in  his 
trade  during  a  period  of  hard  times.  What,  now, 
is  the  first  thing  he  does? 

He  hurries  to  his  bank  for  consultation.  This 
bank  is  the  strong,  able,  dependable  house  towards 
which  he  confidently  turns  both  in  the  time  of 
prosperity  and  of  threatened  disaster  alike.  He 
has  trusted  it  by  placing  his  moneys  in  its  keep- 
ing, he  has  often  before  consulted  it  and  taken 
its  advice.  It  has  known  him  through  a  period  of 
time,  and  it  is  thoroughly  familiar  with  his  busi- 
ness, his  character  and  his  prospects.  Experience 
has  demonstrated  repeatedly  that  it  is  his  staunch 
and  true  friend. 

Now,  if  the  occasion  is  a  worthy  one,  this  bank, 
therefore,  will  freely  extend  the  credit  he  asks 
for;  and  it  will  do  the  same  thing  again  and  again, 
a  thousand  times,  year  in  and  year  out,  just  so 
long  as  his  business  and  his  own  conduct  warrant 
it  in  such  service. 

There  are  a  score  of  other  services  of  an  allied 
and  valuable  character  rendered  to  the  business 
man  by  his  class  bank,  which  it  is  unnecessary 
to  go  into  here;  but  in  every  case  the  service 
planned  in  the  Industrial  Bank  is  parallel  and 
equally  valuable  with  it. 

The  average  man  and  the  business  man  are 


48  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

alike  in  all  essential  particulars.  The  one  may 
have  his  business  as  an  asset,  but  the  other  has 
his  profession  or  trade  of  equal  permanent  value. 
The  one  may  be  known  as  a  careful  and  conserva- 
tive trader  in  the  mercantile  world,  but  the  other 
has  his  own  record  of  steady,  conscientious  work- 
manship in  the  factory,  office  or  mill.  The  one 
may  have  a  reputation  for  discounting  his  bills 
of  merchandise,  but  the  other  has  a  similar  reputa- 
tion for  meeting  his  obligations  promptly  on  pay- 
day, and  his  character  is  unassailable. 

Nor  are  these  men  essentially  different  in  their 
capacity  and  need  for  honest  loans  service. 
Modern  Americans  have  laid  for  evermore  that 
old  bugaboo  which  is  the  senseless  fear  of  debt. 
They  realize  that  judicious  borrowing  for  con- 
structive purposes  is  the  surest  road  on  which  to 
climb  to  higher  levels  in  the  world.  Money  is 
always  worth  far  more  than  the  rental  cost  men 
have  to  pay  banks  for  the  use  of  it. 

Average  men,  therefore,  are  taking  advantage 
of  the  generous  service  of  the  Industrial  Bank 
wherever  it  has  been  established,  just  in  the  same 
ways  and  for  the  same  purposes  as  big  and  little 
business  men  use  their  own  commercial  banks. 
They  are  using  it  daily  with  an  avidity  and  under- 
standing of  its  resources  that  promise  a  wonder- 
ful record  of  progress  among  workers  during 
future  years,  to  be  matched  only  by  the  progress 
of  business  men  through  their  own  class  banks. 


THE  MODERN  INDUSTRIAL  BANK         4& 

The  very  great  majority  of  the  stockholders  of 
the  Trustees  System  Industrial  Bank  are  workers,, 
not  men  of  wealth,  but  average  men  and  women 
who  have  put  a  little  of  their  savings  in  the  in- 
stitution towards  which  they  turn  for  assistance 
and  friendly  advice  in  the  day  of  their  perplexity 
and  need.  The  great  fund  of  the  Industrial  Bank 
is  held  in  trust  for  the  use  of  these  and  other 
workers,  who  come  to  it  day  in  and  day  out,  year 
in  and  year  out,  asking  their  moderate  loans  with 
which  to  accomplish  some  worthy  ambition  and 
lift  their  lives  above  the  common  run  of  men. 

The  terms  of  these  loans  are  purposely  made 
easy,  so  that  the  debt  shall  never  be  a  handicap 
or  burden,  but  on  the  contrary  a  positive  help 
and  advantage  in  meeting  the  problems  the  aver- 
age man  and  woman  must  daily  meet.  There  is. 
not  in  the  life  of  any  worker  a  legitimate  and 
thrifty  need  for  money  service  which  the  Indus- 
trial Bank  is  not  equipped  to  supply,  and  not  a 
difficult  problem  in  his  home  or  business  life  which 
this  bank  does  not  stand  ready  to  help  him  with 
if  he  will  only  come  in  and  ask  for  counsel. 

Each  branch  of  the  Trustees  System  Indus- 
trial Banking  vService  is  like  a  great  consulting 
bureau  for  advice  and  assistance  in  personal  busi- 
ness management.  Men  of  all  kinds  bring  to  it  the 
financial  problems  which  they  have  been  unable 
to  solve,  and  no  one  is  turned  away  who  can 
qualify  in  the  two  simple  requirements  of  per- 


50  THE  GOAL  OP  THE  BUILDERS 

sonal  cliaracter  and  a  moderate  and  steady  earn- 
ing capacity.  Courtesy  and  service  rendered  here 
are  in  no  wise  different,  either  in  quality  or  effec- 
tiveness, from  the  courtesy  and  service  extended 
big  business  men  in  their  own  great  class  banks. 

Moreover,  just  as  in  the  one,  so  in  the  other, 
the  average  man  and  woman  find  a  score  of 
smaller  but  equally  vital  subsidiary  services  at 
their  convenience  in  the  Industrial  Bank,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  fundamental  one  of  a  broad  loans 
service. 

The  first  of  these  is  an  opportunity  to  become 
a  shareholder  and  part  owner  of  the  business 
through  the  purchase  of  a  small  portion  of  the 
Industrial  Bank's  securities.  It  should  be  said 
■emphatically  of  Trustees  System  Service  that  no 
obligation  to  purchase  stock,  or  other  require- 
ment of  a  similar  kind,  is  demanded  of  the  bor- 
rower in  order  to  secure  approval  of  his  applica- 
tion for  a  loan.  But  the  opportunity  to  acquire 
this  stock  is  open  to  him,  if  he  is  able  to  avail 
himself  of  the  thrifty  privilege. 

Many  thousand  earnest  men  and  women  every 
year  do  take  advantage  of  this  chance  to  become 
investors,  and  thus,  through  the  Industrial  Bank, 
find  a  double  opportunity  to  build  the  nucleus  of 
^  future  comfortable  fortune. 

Another  large  subsidiary  service,  established 
for  the  especial  convenience  and  advantage  of 
the  Industrial  Bank's  shareholders  and  friends. 


THE  MODERN  INDUSTRIAL  BANK  51 

is  that  furnished  by  the  Trustees  System  Insur- 
ance Agency.  This  agency  supplies  any  kind  of 
policy  or  bond,  in  standard  companies,  to  fit  the 
exact  requirements  and  abilities  of  the  purchaser. 

The  fact  has  been  demonstrated  repeatedly  in 
the  insurance  field  that  policies  are  now  and  then 
sold  by  careless  agents  upon  which  not  a  dollar 
could  ever  be  recovered  in  damages.  Insurance 
is  one  of  the  most  technical  commodities  that  any- 
one can  buy.  Many  good  policies  are  filled  with 
obscure  clauses  which,  unless  thoroughly  ex- 
plained and  understood  by  the  purchaser,  are 
likely  to  cause  him  to  invalidate  the  insurance 
through  ignorance.  Only  a  thorough  understand- 
ing of  these  clauses  by  the  insured,  and  a  most 
careful  writing  of  the  policy  by  a  conscientious 
agent  seeking  to  fit  the  business  to  the  exact 
requirements  of  the  case,  can  avoid  all  these  pit- 
falls. 

The  great  incentive  in  the  establishment  of 
the  Trustees  System  Insurance  Agency  is  to  pro- 
vide such  a  friendly  and  dependable  service  in 
the  writing  of  all  policies  that  any  man  or  woman, 
regardless  of  technical  knowledge  or  education, 
can  positively  know  that  life  or  property,  when 
insured  through  this  agency,  is  thoroughly  and 
adequately  covered. 

Each  branch  of  the  Trustees  System  Service 
is  provided  with  an  efficiently  organized  Bureau 
of  Information,  to  which  anyone  is  invited  to  bring 


52  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

his  insurance  policies  for  the  purpose  of  having 
them  examined,  free  of  charge,  and  thus  learn  just 
how  effective  the  coverage  may  be. 

Still  another  important  service  rendered  by 
the  Trustees  System  Industrial  Bank  is  the  assis- 
tance offered  the  worker  in  buying  his  home. 
The  home  is  the  basic  structure  of  our  country 
and  nation.  Many  a  man  never  could  have  had  a 
home  of  his  own  if  he  had  not  gone  deeply  into 
debt  in  order  to  acquire  it.  Many  a  man  dare 
not  attempt  so  great  an  enterprise  because  of  the 
need  of  a  little  money  to  help  him  over  the  first 
difl&cult  year  or  two,  which  is  always  the  heaviest 
strain. 

Every  man  without  a  home  yearns  with  all 
his  heart  for  the  good  chance  to  come  his  way 
which  will  enable  him  one  day  to  buy  the  fair 
little  cottage  of  his  dreams. 

The  great  commercial  class  banks  cannot  serve 
these  men.  In  the  past  they  have  had  but  one  way 
to  reach  their  goal.  This  has  been  the  long, 
arduous  road  which  leads  through  the  savings 
bank,  piling  up  slowly  month  by  month  or  week 
by  week  a  few  dollars  through  a  long  period  of 
years,  until  at  last  a  sufficient  sum  has  been  laid 
by  to  meet  the  large  initial  payment  demanded  by 
the  home  builder. 

Today,  through  the  Industrial  Bank,  oppor- 
tunity is  widening  this  door,  and  the  man  who  has 
succeeded  in  saving  a  moderate  sum  finds  a  help- 


THE  MODERN  INDUSTRIAL  BANK  53 

ful  hand  outstretched  to  aid  him  in  realizing  his 
ambition.  The  service  of  the  Industrial  Bank  is 
now  effective  in  establishing  thousands  of  new 
homes  every  year  for  men  and  women  who  work. 

Thus,  through  its  many  phases,  the  Trustees 
System  of  Industrial  Banking  reaches  out  to  touch 
with  new  life  and  hope  the  homes  of  the  great 
ninety  per  cent  of  our  country's  citizens.  It 
brings  to  them  a  friendly  sei'vice  that  effectively 
meets  all  their  principal  needs.  For  the  Average 
Man,  in  the  conduct  of  his  personal  business 
affairs,  does  four  things — 

Buys  or  Rents  a  Home, 

Insures  his  Life  and  Property, 

Borrows  Money, 

Invests  his  Surplus  Savings — 

And  Trustees  System  serves  the  Average  Man 
in  each  of  these  personal  business  affairs. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Capital  of  ''The  Man  Who  Works" 

CAPITAL  is  a  word  that  has  a  noble  sound. 
We  are  accustomed  to  accord  to  it  much 
respect  and  not  a  little  envy.  But  the  prin- 
cipal reason  is  that  we  have  formed  the  habit  of 
persistently  looking  out  at  the  possessions  of 
others,  rather  than  in  at  the  many  things  we  own, 
and  may  still  own  ourselves. 

The  total  wealth  of  our  country  in  1921  was 
estimated  to  be  300  billions  of  dollars.  This 
wealth  had  all  been  produced  practically  within 
three  centuries,  for  in  1620,  when  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  landed  at  Plymouth  Bay,  they  invested  in 
a  howling  wilderness  that,  as  a  business  proposi- 
tion, might  have  been  called  little  short  of  worth- 
less. The  income  from  this  property — our  coun- 
try— each  year  is  now  more  than  60  billions  of 
dollars. 

It  is  true  that  of  this  total  wealth,  ninety-five 
per  cent  is  owned  by  but  five  per  cent  of  the 
people;  but  the  five  per  cent  of  it  that  is  owned 
by  the  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  people  still  runs 
to  quite  a  tidy  sum.  In  1921  it  was  15  billions 
of  dollars. 

Capital  is  wealth  of  any  kind  or  quantity. 
And  money,  which  is  merely  "fluid"  capital,  is 

54 


CAPITAL  OF  ''THE  MAN  WHO  WORKS"    5& 

the  handy  token,  the  symbol  or  sign  representing 
this  wealth,  which  men  pass  from  hand  to  hand 
in  completing  their  daily  transactions. 

A  single  dollar  or  a  single  pound  of  coal  is 
capital,  just  the  same  as  a  million  dollars  or  an 
entire  coal  mine  is  capital ;  and  labor,  the  potential 
result  of  efforts  put  forth  by  healthy  brains  and 
muscle,  is  the  best  kind  of  capital  there  is. 

Without  labor  not  a  dollar  of  the  300  billions 
of  our  total  wealth  could  have  been  piled  up  dur- 
ing the  last  three  centuries.  Without  labor  not  a 
dollar  of  the  60  billions  of  income  expected  to 
come  out  of  it  could  be  produced  this  year. 

By  the  last  census  figures  it  is  seen  that  with 
the  opening  of  1921  there  were  approximately 
47,000,000  workers — wage  and  salary  earners — 
in  our  country.  They  were  the  producers  of  the 
60  billions  of  wealth  made  during  the  previous 
year;  and  they  and  their  families  were  also  the 
owners  of  the  15  billions  which  then  represented 
five  per  cent  of  the  total  wealth  of  our  country. 

Yet  only  ten  per  cent  of  them  owned  a  savings 
bank  account. 

To  speak  more  accurately  in  figures,  there 
were  on  January  1,  1921,  11,427,556  persons  in 
the  United  States  who  were  depositors  in  savings 
banks.  They  owned  a  total  in  deposits  of  $6,536,- 
470,000;  and  their  average  savings  account  was 
$571.99. 

This  sum,  during  the  single  year  1920,  had 


56  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

jumped  forward  by  $634,000,000 ;  and  for  the  two 
years  since  January  1,  1919,  the  total  increase 
had  been  $1,118,000,000.  But  the  number  of  sav- 
ings bank  depositors,  during  the  same  two  years, 
had  increased  by  only  60,543. 

It  will  readily  be  understood  that  practically 
every  dollar  of  this  money  placed  in  savings  banks 
was  owned  by  "The  Man  who  Works."  Big  busi- 
ness and  professional  men,  financiers,  do  not  place 
their  money  in  savings  banks  for  the  reason  that 
they  have  far  more  profitable  things  to  do  with  it. 
They  are  interested  in  business,  manufacturing, 
and  the  promotion  of  new  ideas.  They  have  their 
funds  in  stocks  and  partnerships,  places  where  the 
returns  from  skillful  management  are  the  largest 
possible. 

Big  business  men  are,  in  fact,  the  principal 
borrowers  from  savings  banks,  because  they 
realize  that  the  profits  to  be  made  out  of  bor- 
rowed capital  are  immeasurably  greater  than  the 
rental  cost  they  have  to  pay  banks  for  their  loans. 

The  worker,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  saves  at 
all,  usually  does  place  the  surplus  of  his  earnings 
in  savings  banks.  His  reasons  for  doing  this  are 
three-fold,  and  may  be  summed  briefly  as  follows : 

Unfamiliarity  with  business  and  consequently 
a  total  ignorance  of  the  reasonable  earning  power 
of  money. 

A  deep-seated  conservatism,  born  of  this  ig- 
norance, which  makes  him  hesitate  fatally  over 


CAPITAL  OF  "THE  MAN  WHO  WORKS"   57 

investment,  until  he  ends  by  accepting  a  pittance 
from  the  savings  bank  for  the  service  of  keeping 
his  money  "safe." 

And,  finally,  the  mistaken  idea  that  large  earn- 
ings are  only  to  be  made  by  large  capital,  and 
that  it  is  therefore  useless  for  him  to  think  of 
investing  his  small  savings,  because  opportunity 
to  do  so  profitably  cannot  be  found  in  sound  enter- 
prises. 

These  very  reasons  account  for  the  fact  that 
out  of  47,000,000  workers  in  our  country,  only 
1114  millions  of  them,  ten  per  cent  of  the  whole 
people,  have  a  savings  account.  Practically 
everyone  of  these  workers  could  save  money  if 
he  would.  The  average  savings  each  worker 
should  make  each  year  is  ten  per  cent  of  his 
income. 

When,  therefore,  the  worker  has  gained  a  fair 
knowledge  of  business  and  business  methods,  has 
realized  that  there  are  multitudes  of  sound  busi- 
ness enterprises  where  invested  money  is  skill- 
fully and  safely  handled  in  the  making  of  rea- 
sonable profits,  and  learns  that  many  of  tlie  best 
of  these  are  not  only  available  to  him,  but  that 
they  are  business  organizations  of  such  a  nature 
and  purpose  that  lie  can  be  closely  and  heartily 
interested  in  their  ideals  of  service,  then  undoul)t- 
edly  the  capital  of  ''The  Man  who  Works"  will 
be  enlisted  in  these  enterprises  to  an  extent  and 
volume  undreamed  of  hitherto. 


58  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

One  dollar  has  all  the  potential  qualities  of 
any  other  dollar.  It  is  only  when  that  dollar 
stands  alone  that  it  can  seem  insignificant.  Ten 
dollars,  fifty  dollars,  one  hundred  dollars  make 
each  a  pleasant  company.  One  thousand,  one 
million  dollars  can  be  seen  and  admired  as  far 
as  the  human  eye  can  carry. 

What  the  worker  needs  to  realize  above  every 
other  single  thing  today  is  the  tremendous  fact 
that  his  thriftily  saved  earnings — his  ** fluid" 
capital — when  organized  into  working  units,  as  the 
capital  of  Big  Business  is  organized,  is  capable 
of  the  same  usefulness  and  the  same  kind  of 
profits  in  exactly  the  same  proportion,  dollar  for 
dollar. 

Let  us  take,  for  example,  an  industrial  com- 
munity of  twenty  thousand  workers.  Suppose,  as 
a  basis  for  very  conservative  estimate,  we  place 
the  surplus  these  average  workers  can  easily  save 
and  invest  each  month  at  $10.  If  these  twenty 
thousand  workers,  then,  should  be  clubbed  to- 
gether where  they  make  a  common  investment 
saving  of  $10  each  per  month,  this  would  mean  a 
fund  of  $200,000  every  month,  or  a  grand  total 
of  $2,400,000  in  a  year. 

We  have  but  to  multiply  these  figures  by  ten 
for  ten  communities,  or  by  one  hundred  for  one 
hundred  communities,  and  so  on,  to  realize  what 
stupendous  possibilities  for  profitable  investment 
lie  before  the  capital  of  *'The  Man  who  Works." 


CAPITAL  OF  "THE  ]VIAN  WHO  WORKS"    59 

It  is  only  because  we  do  not  appreciate,  nor 
even  understand,  the  opportunities  whicli  even  the 
most  moderate  thrift  will  unlock  at  our  doors,  that 
it  has  been  possible  to  say  of  Americans  that 
"ninety  per  cent  of  them  are  only  a  year  away 
from  the  poorhouse,  and  fifty  per  cent  of  them 
are  only  a  week  away  from  it. ' ' 

Perhaps  this  is  only  a  flippant  epigram;  but 
the  figures  compiled  by  insurance  companies  are 
indisputable,  which  show  that  out  of  every  one 
hundred  men  taken  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  only 
five  of  them  at  the  age  of  sixty-five  are  living  on 
their  income,  five  are  working,  and  fifty-four  are 
dependent  on  friends,  relatives  or  charity  for  their 
support;  thirty-six  are  dead. 

The  ladder  of  individual  success  has  three 
plain  steps  in  it.  The  first  is.  Earn;  the  second 
is.  Save ;  and  the  third.  Make  what  you  save  earn 
for  you  other  profits — in  other  words,  Invest. 

Put  your  dollar  ON  THE  JOB  and  it  will  faith- 
fully work  for  you.  This  is  all  that  the  Big 
Business  man  does,  all  the  multi-millionaire  can 
possibly  do.  This,  in  fact,  is  exactly  what  the 
borrower  does  every  day  when  he  takes  from  the 
savings  bank  the  funds  that  the  worker  has  de- 
posited there  for  safety  and  puts  them  at  work 
to  earn  new  profits  for  himself. 

This  is  all  that  any  man  ever  did  to  make  the 
fortune  that  thousands  envy  today. 

Numerous   are   the   instances   that   might   be 


60  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

cited  of  wealth  that  grew  from  small  investments. 
There  is  that  familiar  story  of  James  Couzens, 
the  poor  Detroit  bookkeeper,  who  borrowed  $100 
to  complete  an  investment  in  Ford's  ''visionary" 
scheme  to  make  a  buggy  run  without  a  horse  to 
pull  it.  In  twelve  years  this  $100  made  for  him 
over  five  hundred  times  its  original  value. 

Alexander  Bell  tinkered  for  years  with  his 
miraculous  invention  which  men  sneered  at  as  a 
"tinkling  toy."  Many  of  his  early  helpers  re- 
fused to  take  a  little  of  his  telephone  stock  as 
part  pay  for  their  labor,  but  those  who  did  pres- 
ently found  themselves  wealthy. 

The  stories  of  the  Kodak,  the  Talking  Machine, 
the  Safety  Razor,  the  Cash  Register,  the  Sewing 
Machine,  the  Moving  Picture,  Breakfast  Food,  the 
Electric  Lamp,  the  Air  Brake,  the  Pullman  Car, 
the  Automobile — they  are  all  alike,  different  only 
in  name  and  incidentals. 

Every  invention,  every  right  and  well  organ- 
ized business,  every  honest  enterprise,  is  a  solid 
part  of  the  300  billions  of  wealth  that  has  been 
produced  during  the  300  years  of  our  country's 
history.  They  and  the  stalwart  men  behind  them 
are  what  have  made  our  country  great.  To  be  a 
part  of  them,  to  gain  wealth  through  them,  men 
had  only  to  make  the  distinction  between  hind- 
sight and  foresight  and  apply  it. 

What,  then,  are  the  opportunities  open  to  the 
average  man — the  worker — today? 


CAPITAL  OF  "THE  MAN  WHO  WORKS"   61 


What  Happens  to  100  Men  25  Years  Old 
By  the  Time  They  Reach  the  Age  of  65 


36  ARZ  DEAD 


5  UVE  ON  THEIR  INCOME 


5  ARE  WORKING 


r*  A   ARE  DEPENDENT  on  their  fHeiult,  reUdre*  or 
^^  charity  for  lupport. 

An  imreatmcat  of  tsn  per  cent  of  their  ••mingt 
would  h«ve  kept  them  out  of  tbi<  dew. 


THE   CHART  OF    HUMAN   EXPERIENCE 

These  figures  are  based  oa  facts  gathered  by  the  great  Insuranoe  Companies 


62  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

We  have  seen  that  the  wealth  produced  in  our 
country  every  year  is  approximately  60  billions  of 
dollars.  In  1900  the  total  wealth  in  our  country 
was  only  88  billions  of  dollars.  In  1912  it  had 
grown  to  187  billions ;  in  1921  it  was  300  billions. 

It  is  growing  today  in  precisely  the  same  way. 
Some  new  thing,  some  new  idea,  some  new  applica- 
tion of  service,  is  being  born  every  day  to  increase 
our  wealth  and  make  us  better  citizens. 

More  profitable  inventions  were  produced  last 
year  than  in  any  year  before;  more  will  be  pro- 
duced next  year. 

Our  population  during  the  last  decade  in- 
creased by  more  than  13  millions,  more  than  a 
third  of  whom  are  workers — producers  of  wealth. 

Production  figures  are  in  any  current  almanac 
which  show  that  in  mines,  agriculture,  manufac- 
turing, transportation  and  every  other  great  in- 
dustry our  country  is  leaping  forward  with  giant 
strides. 

'*It  is  a  grave  mistake,"  says  Charles  M. 
Schwab,  ''to  think  that  all  the  great  American 
fortunes  have  been  made;  that  all  the  country's 
resources  have  been  developed.  Men  make  oppor- 
tunity. Every  great  industrial  achievement  has 
been  the  result  of  individual  effort — the  practical 
development  of  a  dream  in  the  mind  of  an  in- 
dividual. 

No  truer  words  were  ever  spoken.  The  vast 
untouched  resources  of  our  country  will  be  de- 


CAPITAL  OF  "THE  AIAN  WHO  WORKS"    63 

veloped  by  men  with  new  ideas.  The  future  for- 
tunes will  be  made  by  men  who  have  the  courage 
and  confidence  to  step  forward  and  take  them. 
And  that  larger  future  probably  holds  no  greater 
aid  to  the  worker  in  seizing  opportunity  than 
Trustees  System  Service  offers  him  through  the 
modem  Industrial  Bank. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Marketing  an  Ideal  of  Service 

WHEN  it  became  generally  known  in  Bir- 
mingham, early  in  1914,  that  Mr.  J.  C.  Cor- 
coran was  about  to  organize  a  company  to 
establish  his  new  type  of  loans  service,  there 
were  many  people  who  thought  to  dissuade  him 
from  his  purpose  by  predicting  that  he  never 
would  be  able  to  raise  the  necessaiy  capital. 

These  were  the  same  men  who  had  contended 
that  people  without  property,  or  without  other 
recognized  business  collateral,  were  not  to  be 
trusted  with  money. 

They  now  found  fault  with  the  basic  financial 
plan  of  the  young  organization.  This  plan,  in 
order  to  be  effective  and  helpful  to  a  wide  range 
of  men  and  women,  called  for  the  enlisting  of 
large  sums  of  money;  and  because  Mr.  Corcoran 
chose  to  go  for  this  money  to  the  workers  them- 
selves, financiers  could  see  no  result  for  his  efforts 
but  failure. 

They  said  that  the  wage  and  salary  earner 
was  unfamiliar  with  investments  and  business 
methods,  and  that  he  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
put  his  savings  in  securities  that  promised  rea- 
sonable and  moderate  returns.  He  had  been 
taugkt  to  deposit  his  money  in  savings  banks  for 

64 


MARKETING  AN  IDEAL  OF  SERVICE       65 

safety,  and  to  be  content  with  the  current  interest 
rate  of  three  per  cent,  or  perhaps  four  per  cent 
a  year. 

If  he  should  take  his  money  out  of  the  bank, 
it  might  be  to  speculate  in  some  get-rich-quick 
scheme  with  the  hope  to  gain  a  fortune  over  night, 
but  he  would  not  be  willing  to  invest  it  conserva- 
tively in  the  expectation  of  more  slowly  accumu- 
lating but  solid  business  profits. 

Moreover,  these  men  of  affairs  said  that 
average  men  and  women  would  not  *' stick  to- 
gether." Assuming  that  any  large  number  of 
them  might  be  persuaded  to  put  their  money  in 
the  securities  of  a  corporation,  they  would  not 
realize  either  their  responsibilities  or  their  privi- 
leges, and  would  not  staunchly  support  either  the 
business  or  each  other. 

It  would,  therefore,  be  only  folly  for  Mr.  Cor- 
coran to  attempt  to  enlist  the  capital  of  workers, 
because  they  would  not  give  to  the  new  enterprise 
that  thorough  co-operation  which  is  essential  not 
only  to  the  success  of  any  single  partnership,  but 
which  is  the  life  of  the  corporation — the  multi- 
plied partnership — as  well. 

There  is  only  one  way,  of  course,  to  deny  a 
calumny,  that  is,  to  prove  it  a  lie;  and  there  is 
only  one  way  to  controvert  the  prophecy  of  failure, 
that  is,  to  build  an  enduring  success. 

The  founders  of  Trustees  System  Service  had 
an  abiding  faith  both  in  the  honesty  and  the  in- 


66  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

telligeiice  of  average  men  and  women.  They  were 
undeterred  by  any  prophecy  of  failure,  for  they 
realized,  as  perhaps  few  others  did  in  that  day, 
the  wonderful  possibilities  for  profitable  invest- 
ment of  the  capital  of  "The  Man  who  Works." 
They  thoroughly  believed  in  the  integrity  of  the 
worker's  support,  once  it  was  enlisted,  and  they 
were  confident  they  had  a  plan  of  business  organi- 
zation and  an  ideal  of  service  that  would  effec- 
tively enlist  this  support. 

Those  men  who  prophesied  failure  for  the 
young  Trustees  System  organization  were  of  the 
old  school  of  financier.  Their  experience  had 
truly  been  such  as  to  give  them  ample  grounds 
for  a  pessimistic  view.  But  the  reason  lay,  not 
so  much  in  the  fault  of  the  worker,  as  in  the  old, 
narrow,  prejudiced  views  and  methods  employed 
by  these  financiers  themselves. 

Both  banking  and  business  organization  have 
undergone  tremendous  changes  w^ithin  a  compara- 
tively few  years.  They  have  been  forced  to  do  so, 
both  by  the  need  to  find  new  sources  of  capital 
to  take  the  place  of  those  already  being  drained 
away,  and  by  the  rapid  success  of  many  young 
and  far  more  liberal  organLzations  which,  like 
Trustees  System  Service,  have  been  willing  to 
give  to  the  small  investor  a  full  and  active  part- 
nership in  all  the  profits  made. 

The  day,  fortunately,  has  long  gone  by  in 
America  when  the  w^orker  and  his  dollar  were 


MARKETING  AN  IDEAL  OF  SERVICE       67 

looked  upon  merely  as  chattels  to  perform  a  day's 
work  for  as  small  a  wage  as  possible.  With,  the 
passing  of  the  old  political  and  industrial  boss 
controlling  a  community's  affairs,  a  new  and  bet- 
ter era  brightly  dawned.  America  at  last  began 
to  think  of  the  welfare  of  the  individual,  and  today 
a  ^* right  and  well  organized"  business  offers  the 
savings  and  personality  of  the  worker  the  same 
rights  and  privileges  as  those  of  any  big  business 
man. 

In  fact,  the  gauge  of  modern  business  success 
largely  has  become  the  ability  to  interest,  hold  in 
confidence  and  profitably  use  the  capital  of  aver- 
age men  and  women. 

Mr,  Corcoran  and  his  associates  had  no  need 
to  cater  to  the  narrow  ideas  and  prejudices  of 
large  holders  of  capital.  His  plan  struck  boldly 
out  to  show  the  average  steady  worker  that  with 
the  exercise  of  the  most  ordinary  thrift  he  could 
purchase  a  partnership  in  a  profitable  business, 
and  pay  for  it  on  a  partial  payment  plan  so  liberal 
and  easy  that  it  would  allow  him  to  invest  his 
moderate  savings  from  month  to  month  as  he 
made  them. 

First,  however,  he  sought  an  opportunity  to 
really  INTEREST  men  and  women  in  the  ideals 
and  purposes  of  the  great  Service  that  had  been 
established. 

No  one  was  more  keenly  aware  than  he  of  the 
vital  necessity  for  this  personal  interest.    For  it 


68  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

was  upon  human  interest,  upon  genuine  human 
sympathy  with  the  needs  of  average  men,  that  he 
placed  his  confidence  in  the  eventual  upbuilding 
of  a  great  structure  of  business. 

He  needed  the  little  sums  of  invested  savings 
of  many  thousand  thrifty  workers,  but  he  must 
have  their  co-operation  as  well.  AVithout  this  co- 
operation the  savings  alone  could  be  of  little  real 
value  to  him. 

And  certainly  no  proposal  of  service  could  be 
better  calculated  to  arouse  heartfelt  co-operation 
than  his  great  loans  plan.  Men  are  most  in- 
terested in  that  which  they  understand  and  which 
touches  them  most  closely  in  their  daily  living. 
Here  was  a  plan  of  helpful  loans  service  made  so 
liberal  and  easy,  so  broad  and  humanly  friendly, 
that  all  men  and  women  who  work  might  use 
it  again  and  again  to  their  increasing  advantage 
and  profit. 

For  who  has  not  felt  a  need  of  money  unsat- 
isfied? "Who  has  not  listened  to  the  discourage- 
ment of  friends  burdened  with  the  load  of  care 
and  debt?  What  merchant,  what  professional 
man,  has  not  upon  his  books  the  numberless  ac- 
counts of  honest  men  who  lack  only  opportunity 
and  a  little  time  to  clear  them  all  away  and  win 
back  their  independence  and  self-respect? 

The  history  of  Trustees  System  Service  has 
been  a  splendid  denial  of  that  old  calumny  that 
average  men  and  women  ''will  not  stick  together," 


MARKETING  AN  IDEAL  OF  SERVICE      69 

and  also  of  that  other  lie  that  they  will  not  invest 
their  money  in  a  conservative  business. 

From,  the  day  its  securities  were  first  offered, 
worker  and  business  man,  professional  man  and 
banker  alike  have  rallied  to  its  support;  and  no 
better  augury  of  the  future  could  be  had  than  the 
long  years  of  success  behind  it,  the  sturdy  and 
far-reaching  present  business  structure,  and  the 
increasing  thousands  of  those  earnest,  devoted 
people  who  every  year  are  glad  to  add  themselves 
to  its  roll  of  staunch  supporters,  shareholders 
and  members. 

Men  and  women  are  not  sought  as  members 
of  Trustees  System  primarily  from  the  point  of 
view  of  money  investment.  Not  everyone  who 
may  wish  to  do  so  can  purchase  these  shares. 
The  quality  of  the  individual  purchaser  is  the  most 
important  consideration,  and  character  and  earn- 
ing capacity  are  as  carefully  scrutinized  as  in  the 
case  of  the  borrower  who  has  made  application 
for  a  loan.  f 

It  is  often  of  far  greater  value  to  interest  a 
single  small  investor  in  the  purchase  of  a  single 
share  of  stock  than  to  bring  in  the  cash  money 
of  a  score  of  individuals  whose  purchases  miglit 
run  to  many  thousands  of  dollars. 

The  Trustees  System  Service  organization 
does  not  offer  to  anyone  the  hope  to  gain  a  for- 
tune over  night.  It  is  not  in  business  just  to  see 
how  much  money  it  can  make — if  that  were  true 


70  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

it  would  get  into  the  loan  shark  class,  where  it 
properly  would  belong.  It  is  a  business  formed 
to  make  legitimate  profits,  but  it  has  a  philan- 
thropic soul.  Its  shareholders  have  seen  the 
vision  of  its  lofty  service  to  mankind — or  else  they 
have  not  become  shareholders.  They  are  people 
who  truly  believe  that  ''giving"  is  more  impor- 
tant than  "getting,"  and  that  Service  is  the 
greatest  thing  in  the  world. 

Not  only  in  spite  of  this,  but  largely  because 
of  this,  it  has  built  up  since  1914  a  tremendous 
business  organization,  w^hich  offers  to  average 
men  and  w^omen  one  of  the  soundest  and  most 
advantageous  opportunities  to  profit  that  is  avail- 
able to  them.  It  is  fundamentally  a  thrift  busi- 
ness, an  association  of  workers  engaged  in  sincere 
co-operation  to  secure,  both  for  themselves  and 
for  others,  mutual  benefits  and  profits. 

Every  man  and  woman — every  thrifty  worker 
— owes  to  himself  a  debt  that  Trustees  System 
Service  can  help  him  pay.  This  debt  is  the  obliga- 
tion to  become  financially  independent,  to  estab- 
lish a  financial  reserve  of  such  size  that  no  mis- 
fortune can  ever  overtake  or  destroy  him. 

It  is  a  debt  that  can  be  paid  in  no  other  way 
than  by  the  methodical  investment  of  a  man's 
savings  during  the  years  when  his  vigor  and  his 
abilities  are  at  their  best. 

Nothing  can  be  more  interesting  than  the  table 
of  figures  that  shows  what  a  man's  savings,  when 


IVIARKETING  AN  IDEAL  OF  SERVICE       71 


AMOUNT  SAVED  DURING  HIS  SOth  YEAR  WILL  INCREASE  TO  *7oi.oi 

"  "              "           "  494  "  "  «            «  „,_j, 

"  "              "           "  48th  "  ••  «            «  g^^, 

"  MM"  47tl,  M  "  U                      U  g93J7 

u  u                    u               u  4g(J,  u  u  u                 u  »49J0 

M  MUM  4gjjj  «  u  «                 i<  1008^4 

«  *              "           "  44A  "  "  «            «  ^„,^ 

"  "              "           "  43„1  "  «  M            «  „3gj, 

"  «              M           "  42nd  "  M  MM  J209.72 

**  M                     M                 u  ^j^  u  u  u                  u  I28SJ2 

*•  "                    "               "  40th  "  "  u                 u  I366.S* 


39th 
38th 
37th 
36th 
35th 


34th 
33id 
32iKi 
3la 

30th 


29th 
28th 
27th 
26th 
25th 


1451.01 
1541.70 
1638.06 
1740.42 
1849.20 


19,475.52 


1964.79 
2087.58 
2218.05 
2356.68 
2503.98 


30,606.60 


2660.49 
2826.75 
3003.42 
3191.13 
3390.60 


24th  " 

23id  " 

22wi  " 

21«t  " 

20lh  " 


45,678.99 

3602.52 

"  3827.67 

"  4066.89 

4321.08 

4591.14 


66,088.29 


POSSIBLE  GROWTH  OF  INVESTED  SAVINGS 

The  chart  provides  that  at  twenty  years  old  a  man  starts  savinf>  one  dollar 
a  day,  300  days  in  the  year,  invests  these  savings  as  made  in  an  investment 
paying  6%%  dividends,  and  reinvests  all  bis  dividends.  He  stops  saving  at 
fifty  years  of  age. 


72  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

carefully  and  conservatively  invested,  can  amount 
to  during  a  given  period  of  years.  Suppose  that 
a  man  were  to  start  at  twenty  years  of  age,  saving 
$1.00  a  day  for  300  days  in  the  year,  and  were  to 
invest  these  savings  in  a  security  that  paid  6I/4 
per  cent,  and  re-invest  the  dividends,  until  he  was 
fifty  years  of  age : 

At  the  age  of  sixty-five,  the  amount  accumu- 
lated from  his  fiftieth  year  would,  it  is  estimated, 
total  $701.01;  the  amount  accumulated  from  his 
fortieth  year  would  total  $11,255.13;  the  amount 
accumulated  from  his  thirtieth  year  would  total 
$30,606.60;  and  the  entire  amount  accumulated 
from  his  twentieth  year  would  be  $66,088.29. 

It  PAYS  to  save;  it  PAYS  to  invest.  The 
ideal  investment  for  the  worker  is  the  security 
which  makes  him  a  full  partner  in  all  the  profits 
earned,  and  in  which  his  interest  will  have  a 
double  value  from  the  fact  that  it  is  a  business 
where  his  heart  can  be  invested  as  well  as  his 
money — ^like  Trustees  System  Service. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Coeporate  Business  Structure 

ONE  of  the  greatest  leaders  in  our  American 
business  world,  a  man  noted  for  his  extraor- 
dinary liberal,  broad  and  fair-minded  out- 
look upon  all  industrial  life,  has  said: 

"The  one  test  of  the  permanent  worth  of  any 
idea  or  enterprise  is  whether  or  not  it  can  be 
used  by  all  the  people.  A  thing  that  is  good  for 
only  a  few  men  is  really  no  good  at  all.  The  best 
things  are  those  which  give  aid  and  comfort  and 
pleasure  to  all  the  people." 

There  can  no  limit  be  put  upon  the  interpre- 
tation of  this  great  idea.  Its  application  is  uni- 
versal. Since  the  world  began  the  exclusive  cus- 
tom, the  narrow  privilege  and  the  preferred  right 
have  invariably  given  way  before  more  liberal 
ideas.  Nothing  can  survive  which  may  not  be 
used  by  the  majority  of  men  and  women. 

Business  is  no  exception  to  this  excellent  rule. 
The  modern  business  which  does  not  make  in- 
creasing efforts  to  render  far-reaching  service  is 
already  doomed.  The  modern  business  which  is 
founded  upon  the  principles  of  service  and  which 
is  devoted  to  an  unselfish  giving  of  that  service 
is  the  best  kind  of  business  there  is. 

It  also  will  be  most  successful,  because  it  will 

73 


74  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

have  the  unstinted  approval  and  friendly  support 
of  all  men  and  all  women. 

It  is  the  good  fortune  of  Trustees  System 
Service  to  be  founded  upon  one  of  the  most  unique 
and  unselfish  conceptions  of  service  that  perhaps 
ever  have  gained  wide  fame  in  the  world.  More- 
over, the  financial  plan  of  its  organization  em- 
braces one  of  the  most  liberal  business  associa- 
tions in  which  men  are  interested  today. 

The  business  instrument  is,  of  course,  the  cor- 
poration. It  is  a  common  habit  to  rail  at  corpora- 
tions, and  because  of  the  iniquities  of  some  large 
and  exceedingly  powerful  organizations  to  there- 
fore damn  them  all.  But  the  truth  is  that  cor- 
porations not  only  may  be,  but  many  of  them  now 
are,  great  and  beneficent  institutions,  so  organized 
and  so  conducted  that  the  utmost  in  efficiency  and 
service  is  enjoyed  both  by  those  who  are  finan- 
cially interested  in  them  and  those  who  are  em- 
ployed by  them,  as  well  as  the  public  at  large. 

The  corporation  is  the  greatest  and  most  effi- 
cient agent  of  business  that  ever  has  been  devised. 
It  derives  its  power  from  the  state,  whose  author- 
ity comes  from  the  people.  A  creature,  therefore, 
of  the  state,  it  is  a  legal  being  empowered  to  act 
as  a  natural  person;  but  it  has  the  advantage  of 
being  able  to  carry  on  business  in  perpetuity,  a 
thing  no  individual  or  partnership  could  ever  do. 

In  laying  the  plans  for  the  business  structure 
of  Trustees  System  Service,  Mr.  J.  C.  Corcoran 


CORPORATE  BUSINESS  STRUCTURE   75 

and  his  associates  took  as  a  base  several  broad 
and  general  principles,  each  of  which  they  felt  to 
be  endowed  with  all  the  elements  of  unquestioned 
justice. 

The  first  of  these  was  perfect  equality.  Just 
as  the  service  they  proposed  to  make  possible 
should  be  effective  and  valuable  in  the  lives  of 
all  men  and  all  women,  so  the  great  business  itself 
should  be  equally  profitable  to  all  those  who  might 
become  financially  interested  in  it,  and  should  give 
to  each  of  these  a  voice  proportionate  to  his  in- 
terest in  the  direction  of  the  company's  affairs. 

The  second  great  principle  was  universal  op- 
portunity. Not  merely  a  few  immensely  wealthy 
and  powerful  individuals  were  to  be  invited  to 
provide  the  capital  and  share  in  the  profits  of 
the  enterprise ;  but  a  plan  must  be  devised  which 
would  open  the  door  to  every  worker,  and  make 
it  possible  for  him  to  become  a  full  thrifty  part- 
ner, co-operating  and  helping  to  build  up  the  busi- 
ness in  which  he  and  his  friends  were  to  be 
personally  and  vitally  interested. 

The  third,  and  always  the  highest  principle  of 
all,  was  absolute  unselfishness.  Trustees  System 
Service  must  not  be  confused  as  a  philanthropy. 
It  should  be  organized  and  conducted  as  a  legiti- 
mate business,  striving  to  make  a  fair  and  rea- 
sonable profit.  But  it  could  never  be  forgotten 
that  in  the  Trustees  System  ideal  of  service  there 
would  never  be  any  room  for  grasping  methods. 


76  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

or  for  that  littleness  of  soul  in  the  individual 
which  is  willing  to  take  an  unfair  profit  at  the 
expense  of  the  man  who  is  down. 

Working  under  these  great  principles,  it  was 
impossible  not  to  devise  a  corporate  plan  of  ex- 
ceptional attractiveness  and  value.  The  corporate 
shares  were  issued  in  moderate  values  which  made 
them  within  the  means  of  every  man  and  woman ; 
and  an  easy  partial  payment  plan  was  devised 
which  might  spread  the  installments  (if  the  in- 
vestor so  desired)  over  a  long  period  in  much 
the  same  manner  that  the  average  borrower  might 
meet  the  easy  payments  on  his  loan. 

Moreover,  the  organization  of  these  shares  pro- 
vided for  the  payment  of  cumulative  dividends 
from  date  of  full  pajTuent ;  and  each  share  held  a 
full  participating  right  with  every  other  share  in 
all  the  profits  earned  by  the  corporation. 

The  essential  picture  of  the  great  Service  or- 
ganization thus  formed  can  be  gained  in  no  better 
way  than  by  offering  here  once  more,  as  in  a 
previous  chapter  of  this  record,  the  example  of 
that  thrifty  community  where  many  workers  are 
interested  in  a  common  saving  plan  and  united  in 
a  common  investment  purpose. 

Here  are  ten,  or  perhaps  twenty,  thousand 
heads  of  families,  each  of  whom  sets  aside  out  of 
his  surplus  earnings  a  small  sum  each  month.  Let 
us  suppose  this  average  sum  to  be  only  ten  dollars. 
But  it  is  joined  "svith  a  like  sum  saved  and  in- 


CORPORATE  BUSINESS  STRUCTURE        77 

vested  by  each  member  of  the  whole  company, 
who  have  united  their  capital  in  a  common  fund 
for  service  and  for  profit. 

The  individual  sums  may  seem  small,  but  col- 
lectively they  grow  within  the  year  to  a  tremen- 
dous and  powerful  capital,  in  the  ownership  of 
which  each  worker  in  the  company  has  a  propor- 
tionate part,  both  of  capital  and  of  earned  profits, 
according  as  he  put  into  the  original  fund. 

Ten  dollars  per  month,  so  saved  and  so  in- 
vested by  each  of  ten  thousand  men  and  women, 
make  $100,000  every  month,  and  $1,200,000  in  a 
year.  Ten  dollars  per  month  so  saved  and  in- 
vested by  tw^enty  thousand  w^orkers  make  $2,400,- 
000  in  a  year. 

The  picture  of  these  earnest  and  thrifty  work- 
ers is  not  complete  in  any  community  until  it 
shows  in  the  center  the  friendly  structure  of  an 
Industrial  Bank,  in  which  these  savings  are  in- 
vested, and  to  which  anyone  of  them  can  come 
with  any  perplexity  or  financial  problem  and  con- 
fidently expect  the  kind  of  assistance  that  will  put 
him  surely  on  the  upgrade  again. 

The  practical  working  out  of  this  great  finan- 
cial plan  is  what  has  built  the  corporate  business 
structure  of  the  Trustees  System  Sei-vice  organi- 
zation. It  is  unnecessary  to  detail  again  the  steps 
by  which  it  has  gained  the  power  and  eminence 
it  displays  today.  Every  business  organization 
is  the  result  of  evolution,  expansion,  made  neces- 


78  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

sary  by  the  growth  of  its  success  and  the  spread- 
ing effectiveness  of  the  service  it  renders. 

In  the  case  of  Trustees  System  Service  addi- 
tional problems  were  encountered  from  the  fact 
that  almost  every  state  in  the  Union  has  a  dif- 
ferent law  covering  the  loaning  of  money  to 
workers.  These  show  how  vital  the  lawmakers 
have  always  considered  this  question  to  be,  but 
they  are  at  the  same  time  unmistakable  evidence 
that  laws,  no  matter  how  carefully  drawn,  never 
will  really  protect  the  average  man,  desperately  in 
need  of  money,  from  the  loan  shark. 

Trustees  System  Service  has  endeavored  to 
make  profitable  use  of  every  just  law  and  oppor- 
tunity as  it  found  them.  New  companies  were  at 
first  found  necessary  to  handle  the  business  as 
it  spread  from  state  to  state,  and  each  was  planned 
as  a  separate  entity,  loosely  joined  to  the  whole 
body  of  the  Service  organization. 

Soon,  however,  as  the  true  vision  of  its  great 
destiny  became  clear  to  the  management,  a  strong, 
able  and  flexible  business  structure  was  evolved, 
which  is  the  efficient  working  plan  today. 

At  the  top  is  the  Industrial  Loan  &  Guaranty 
Company,  organized  with  an  authorized  capital 
stock  of  $1,000,000.  The  province  of  this  com- 
pany is  the  financing  and  promoting  of  the 
various  branches  of  the  Trustees  System  Service. 
It  is  served  by  the  Securities  Department  of  the 
organization,  and  it  also  directs  the  advertising 


CORPORATE  BUSINESS  STRUCTURE       79 


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80  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

and  publicity  of  the  Service,  including  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Industrial  Banker,  the  official  journal 
of  Trustees  System. 

The  Trustees  System  Service  Corporation  is 
the  operating  and  holding  company  of  the  organi- 
zation. It  has  active  control  and  direction  of  all 
the  working  branches  and  departments  of  the 
Service,  scattered  throughout  the  various  states 
where  the  Trustees  System  of  Industrial  Banking 
is  known.  The  rapid  development  and  extension 
of  the  System,  with  the  marvelous  efficiency  of 
its  many  branches,  is  largely  due  to  the  flexible 
management  established  under  the  working  of  this 
great  directing  company. 

Grouped  under  its  control,  first,  are  the  Loans 
Departments,  whose  business  is  the  fundamental 
one  of  the  Trustees  System ;  second,  the  Insurance 
Departments,  with  active  branches  in  all  Trustees 
System  offices;  third,  the  Credit  Departments, 
wliose  organization  reaches  throughout  the  com- 
plete Industrial  Banking  system;  and  fourth,  the 
General  Department  devoted  to  a  Realty  and 
Home  Buying  Service.  Each  of  these  three  latter 
divisions  is  described  and  its  work  dwelt  upon 
with  the  care  and  attention  it  deserves  in  a  sepa- 
rate part  of  this  record. 

In  each  case  these  subsidiary  businesses  of 
the  Trustees  System  of  Industrial  Banking  have 
been  the  outgrowth  of  some  especial  need  or  op- 
portunity to  serve  in  a  larger  way  the  men  and 


CORPORATE  BUSINESS  STRUCTURE        81 

women  who  are  its  personal  clients.  They  have 
been  evolved  as  the  business  spread,  gaining  in 
experience  and  effectiveness  with  such  tremendous 
strides  that  within  a  few  years  they  have  become 
large  and  profitable  feeders  to  the  parent  organi- 
zation, and  such  valuable  servants  of  workers  that 
many  friends  have  been  made  through  their  minis- 
trations alone. 

On  an  adjoining  page  a  diagram  is  produced 
which  will  give  the  reader  a  comprehensive  idea 
of  the  organization  of  the  Trustees  System  Busi- 
ness structure.  By  a  study  of  this  diagram  he  will 
readily  understand  the  simplicity  and  effective 
operation  of  its  far-flung  and  powerful  Service. 

Let  it  also  be  remembered  that  this  business 
structure  is  not  just  a  great  and  soulless  corpora- 
tion, operating  like  some  juggernaut  of  business 
to  render  a  minimum  of  service  and  then  gather 
to  itself  all  the  profits  it  can  possibly  make. 

It  is,  on  the  contrary,  an  association  of  men 
and  women,  human  and  warm-hearted  Average 
people,  workers  in  the  thousand  industries  and 
offices  of  every  busy  community  of  this  great 
country  of  ours.  They  are  banded  together,  first, 
for  service;  second,  for  profit;  and  through  their 
personal  co-operation  with  each  other  they  have 
built  within  a  few  years  a  vast  partnership  busi- 
ness, which  functions  as  a  corporation  in  the  most 
efficient  and  unselfish  service  that  men  have  ever 
banded  themselves  together  to  produce. 


CHAPTER  X 
A  Dependable  Credit  Service 

WHEN  that  first  little  Industrial  Bank  was 
opened  in  Birmingham  in  1914  under  its 
potent  slogan,  "Loans  to  the  Man  who 
Works,"  perhaps  the  most  serious  problem  it 
immediately  encountered  was  the  question  of 
Credits. 

Although  its  founders  had  every  faith  in  the 
honesty  of  average  men  and  women,  and  every 
confidence  that  the  business  they  were  establish- 
ing would  come  to  successful  fruition,  no  glamour 
of  idealism  was  allowed  to  cloud  for  a  moment 
the  stem,  practical  necessity  that  the  invested 
savings  of  the  Trustees  System  stockholders  must 
be  protected  in  every  possible  way  from  loss. 

The  commodity  dealt  in  by  this  Industrial 
Bank  was  the  most  important  in  a  business  sense 
that  any  organization  could  handle.  It  was 
money,  the  medium  of  all  trade,  and  no  profits 
could  be  entered  or  considered  until  the  loan 
should  be  entirely  repaid. 

The  problem  of  Credit  was  the  very  heart  of 
the  whole  future  of  the  business.  Some  sure  and 
smoothly  functioning  way  must  be  found  by  which 
to  determine  accurately  and  justly,  and  with  a 
rapidity    considerate    of   the   borrower's   needs, 

82 


A  DEPENDABLE   CREDIT  SERVICE         83 

whether  or  not  he  was  to  be  allowed  the  loan  for 
which  he  had  made  application. 

It  was  quickly  discovered  that  the  usual  Credit 
Reports  to  be  purchased  in  the  open  market  were 
of  little  value  in  a  banking  or  loans  business. 
They  were  deficient  from  the  fundamental  fact 
that  they  were  incomplete.  The  kind  of  hasty 
credit  report  furnished  by  the  average  mercantile 
reporting  agency  might  do  in  the  temporary 
emergency  of  the  little  shopkeeper,  with  only  a 
few  dollars  at  stake,  but  for  the  important  matter 
of  a  loan,  they  lacked  such  vital  information  and 
were  so  full  of  holes  for  misunderstanding  that 
the  Industrial  Bank  could  not  consider  them  at  all. 

In  the  national,  or  commercial,  bank  this  prob- 
lem is  simply  and  easily  handled.  The  borrower 
is  immediately  recognized  as  a  well  known  in- 
dividual in  the  community.  He  has  a  sworn  state- 
ment of  a  going  business,  whose  importance  is 
common  knowledge  to  the  bank  and  all  citizens. 
Or  he  has  mortgageable  property,  the  title  to 
which  may  be  investigated  in  records  of  unques- 
tioned value.  If  neither  basis  of  credit  is  avail- 
able, he  will  then  put  up  sound  collateral  of  such 
character  as  the  bank  may  demand. 

But  the  whole  scheme  of  service  and  the  very 
efficacy  of  that  service  in  reaching  and  helping 
average  men  and  women  depended  in  the  Trustees 
System  Industrial  Bank  upon  the  successful 
ability  of  this  bank  to  make  sound  loans  without 


84  THE   GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

asking  the  worker  for  any  of  these  commonly 
demanded  credits. 

The  two  credits  to  be  supplied  by  the  worker 
were  proof  of  the  integrity  of  his  Character  and 
a  reasonable  record  of  steady  earning  capacity. 

But  the  fact  of  his  honesty  and  the  record  of 
his  emplojTnent  and  earnings  must,  of  course,  be 
determined  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt.  If 
it  could  not  be  shown  that  the  individual  was 
worthy  and  that  he  was  capable  of  keeping  his 
contract  to  repay,  no  loan  could  be  made.  To 
do  this  both  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Trustees 
System  management  and  of  the  worker  himself, 
it  developed  that  there  was  but  one  course  to 
pursue. 

The  Trustees  System  Service  organization, 
therefore,  established  its  own  credit  investigating 
department. 

There  is  today  probably  no  more  thoroughly 
organized  and  efficient  Department  of  Credits  in 
any  large  business  in  the  country  than  that  of 
the  Trustees  System  chain  of  Industrial  Banks. 
While  the  credit  division  in  each  Trustees  Sys- 
tem city  is  a  separate  entity,  they  are  joined  in  a 
perfectly  co-ordinating  organization  that  reaches 
throughout  the  extent  of  the  Trustees  System 
business  structure,  and  enjoys  the  benefit  of  the 
best  talent  and  experience  of  all  the  Service  per- 
sonnel. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  a  prin- 


A  DEPENDABLE  CREDIT  SERVICE        85 

cipal  reason  for  inability  to  use  with  confidence 
the  usual  commercial  credit  report  was  its  hasty 
inaccuracy  and  incompleteness.  The  credit  report 
upon  which  entire  dependence  may  be  placed  does 
not  fall  short  of  as  complete  a  record  of  the  in- 
dividual and  his  environment  as  may  be  obtained. 
It  should  be  a  positive  record,  in  which  no  fact 
is  overlooked  and  no  conclusion  left  to  inference 
or  guesswork. 

But  it  should  also  be  a  just  record.  The  honest 
man  has  nothing  to  conceal.  He  is  always  ready 
to  assist  the  credit  man  in  gaining  that  complete 
picture  of  his  character  and  abilities  which  will 
enable  an  unbiased  opinion  to  be  formed.  Facts 
hidden  or  distorted,  and  information  carelessly 
passed  by  or  only  partially  obtained,  only  tend 
to  confuse  the  real  truth  in  making  up  the  reliable 
credit  report. 

Moreover,  rapidity  is  a  most  essential  con- 
sideration in  the  securing  of  credit  information. 
This  is  always  true,  but  it  is  particularly  so  in 
the  service  of  the  Industrial  Bank.  Many  of  the 
loans  applied  for  there  are  requested  only  after 
the  borrower  has  been  driven  to  the  verge  of 
desperation  and  his  need  is  vital,  indeed.  In  spite 
of  many  years  of  effort  to  educate  the  worker  to 
understand  the  large  ease  and  opportunity  of 
liberal  money  service,  he  still  shrinks  from  ask- 
ing loans.  In  the  hour  of  need,  therefore,  in  his 
desperate  hurry  to  find  almost  any  way  out  of 


86  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

his  difficulties,  it  is  small  wonder  that  he  falls 
so  often  into  the  clutches  of  the  loan  shark. 

But  promptness  in  the  handling  of  every  ap- 
plication for  loans  service  through  the  Trustees 
System  Industrial  Bank  is  made  possible  by  the 
thorough  organization  of  the  Credit  Department. 
Many  of  these  applications  have  been  handled  in 
a  single  day.  While  this,  of  course,  is  not  the 
custom,  and  the  usual  facts  required  in  so  impor- 
tant a  matter  as  a  loan  will  frequently  take  several 
days  to  acquire,  still,  in  emergency,  the  borrower 
finds  a  friendly  consideration  here  as  well  as  in 
all  other  departments  of  the  Trustees  System 
Service. 
^^  This  consideration  of  the  individual  who  may 
be  the  subject  of  credit  investigation  extends 
throughout  the  search  for  information  about  him. 
Just  as  the  interview  with  the  loan  manager  in  the 
Trustees  System  Industrial  Bank  is  an  intimate 
and  confidential  conference  between  friends,  where 
the  object  in  view  is  unselfish  and  permanently 
helpful  service,  so  in  the  pursuit  of  credit  in- 
formation on  which  this  loan  is  to  be  granted 
every  effort  is  made  to  continue  the  friendly  spirit 
of  service. 

The  efficiency,  therefore,  of  this  Credit  Depart- 
ment might  be  considered  remarkable  even  by  the 
great  wholesale  houses  and  department  stores 
upon  whose  general  credit  plan  the  Trustees  Sys- 
tem credit  organization  has  been  laid  out.    Effi- 


A  DEPENDABLE   CREDIT  SERVICE         87 

ciency  can  be  measured  only  by  results.  The  facts 
are  that  the  percentage  of  loss  sustained  by  the 
Trustees  System  of  Industrial  Banks  through  its 
loans  service  is  so  small  as  to  be  almost  nothing 
at  all ;  and  very  seldom,  indeed,  in  its  history  has 
it  ever  been  necessary  to  ask  a  co-maker  to  pay 
the  note  of  the  man  for  whom  he  signed  as  a 
friend. 

Some  idea  of  the  volume  of  the  credit  reports 
accumulated  by  this  Credit  Department  may  be 
had  from  a  knowledge  that  6,652  loans  were 
granted  by  the  Trustees  System  Industrial  Banks 
during  the  year  1920,  and  that  the  total  loans 
granted  during  a  little  more  than  five  years  were 
16,316.  Each  of  these  average  loans  called  for 
the  investigation  of  not  less  than  four  individuals, 
for  each  of  whom  a  complete  credit  report  was 
compiled. 

This  also  does  not  take  into  consideration  num- 
berless rejected  applications  for  the  loans  service, 
taken  in  each  Trustees  System  office,  on  each  of 
which  the  same  thorough  investigations  were 
made. 

In  addition,  the  Credit  Department  of  the 
Birmingham  office  issues  the  Red  Book,  which 
contains  a  most  interesting  fund  of  Credit  In- 
formation covering  the  Birmingham  credit  dis- 
trict. This  Red  Book  comprises  the  names  of 
thousands  of  credit  seekers,  with  their  credit  and 
pay  ratings;  a  complete  list  of  county  taxpayers; 


88  THE  GOAL  OF  THE   BUILDERS 

a  bankruptcy  list  brought  down  to  date;  and  a 
complete  list  of  owners  of  automobiles,  in  addi- 
tion to  other  features. 

It  will  readily  be  understood,  therefore,  that 
the  Credit  Service  of  the  Trustees  System  Indus- 
trial Banks,  in  each  of  its  established  districts,  is 
popular  with  many  business  and  professional  men 
who  have  taken  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to 
use  it.  The  service  is  particularly  valuable  to 
these  men,  because  of  the  fact  that  the  Credit 
Reports  in  the  Trustees  System  files  are  in- 
variably upon  workers,  average  men  and  women, 
small  business  and  professional  men,  among  whom 
the  merchant  and  professional  man  find  the  mul- 
titude of  their  own  clients. 

A  Credit  Service  planned  as  the  basis  of  a 
great  loans  business,  seeking  to  retain  as  a  friend 
everyone  with  whom  it  comes  in  contact,  and  so 
thoroughly  organized  and  far  reaching  that  it 
gathers  the  minutest  details  upon  the  characters 
and  abilities  of  many  thousands  of  the  buying 
public,  cannot  fail  to  offer  large  opportunity  to 
anyone  desiring  to  use  a  really  efficient  and  de- 
pendable Credit  Service. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Weiting  Insurance  That  Insures 

SERVICE — the  kind  of  service  that  saves  a 
client  actual  money,  in  addition  to  time, 
worry,  inconvenience  and  heartache — can  be 
exemplified  in  no  better  way  than  in  the  writing 
of  insurance. 

The  writing  of  insurance  has  become  one  of 
the  great  businesses  of  the  world.  It  is  no  longer 
a  commodity  that  the  average  man  takes  or  leaves 
alone  as  the  whim  or  opportunity  may  come  to 
him.  It  is  a  thing  that  all  men  and  most  women 
feel  is  an  essential  to  the  complete  furnishing  of 
their  lives. 

The  volume  of  insurance  written,  therefore,  in 
a  single  year  is  a  stupendous  sum.  It  is  greater 
in  America  than  in  any  other  country,  partly  be- 
cause of  better  education  which  reveals  to  men 
and  women  the  sound  basic  reasons  for  its  use, 
partly  because  Americans  are  eminently  better 
fitted  by  economic  conditions  to  avail  themselves 
of  all  its  advantages. 

But  this  very  fact  that  insurance  is  in  such 
great  demand  and  is  written  in  such  extraordi- 
nary volume  makes  for  a  certain  looseness  and 
inefficiency  in  the  business  that  sometimes  works 
harm  and  even  disaster  to  the  unsuspecting  and 
trustful  purchaser. 

89 


90  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

As  ill  the  case  of  every  worth-while  thing  in 
life,  Knowledge  is  the  fundamental  requisite  in  the 
writing  and  the  purchase  of  insurance.  If  the 
agent  does  not  know  the  exact  conditions  under 
which  the  policy  of  insurance  is  to  be  held,  he 
cannot  accurately  cover  the  thing  to  be  insured. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  purchaser  is  ignorant 
of  the  conditions  printed  in  the  policy  which  deter- 
mine the  rules  upon  which  damages  for  loss  will 
be  paid,  he  cannot  comply  with  them  for  the  pro- 
tection of  his  property. 

To  the  average  mind  it  might  seem  that  these 
are  simple  matters  to  be  met  and  readily  over- 
come. But  the  agent,  in  his  haste,  sometimes  in 
his  criminal  carelessness,  is  too  often  anxious  to 
write  the  new  business  without  taking  the  neces- 
sary time  to  find  out  all  he  should  know  about  it. 
And  the  printed  conditions  contained  in  the 
policies  of  most  companies  are  couched  in  such 
legal  and  technical  phrases  that  few  can  know 
just  what  they  mean  without  a  careful  study  and 
expert  explanation. 

When,  therefore,  the  Insurance  Department  of 
the  Trustees  System  Service  organization  was  first 
opened,  in  the  early  part  of  1919,  and  the  policy 
of  the  agency  was  being  determined,  it  was  typical 
of  the  Trustees  System  management  that  this 
policy  should  be  planned  as  ''Purchasers  of  In- 
surance. ' ' 

Practically  all  standard  insurance  rates  are 


WRITING  INSURANCE  THAT  INSURES     91 

the  same.  That  is,  the  insurance  companies  whose 
purchasable  protection  for  life  or  property  is  un- 
questionably first  grade,  and  therefore  ''stand- 
ard," charge  one  scale  of  prices  for  this  protec- 
tion. 

Insurance  competition,  therefore,  resolves  it- 
self down  to  a  race  for  volume  of  business,  the 
finding  of  new  customers ;  and  men  in  the  placing 
of  their  policies  are  largely  influenced  to  secure 
the  services  of  friends,  acquaintances  or  business 
organizations  in  which  they  are  financially  in- 
terested. 

In  resolving  to  become  "Purchasers  of  In- 
surance" the  Trustees  System  Service  organiza- 
tion saw  a  wonderful  opportunity  to  render 
valuable  service  to  its  shareholders  and  friends, 
and  at  the  same  time  build  up  a  large  and  profit- 
able business  among  the  many  thousands  of  peo- 
ple who  would  realize  that  their  financial  interests 
were  being  served  as  well  as  their  better  welfare 
considered  by  this  agency. 

No  agent  can  faithfully  serve  two  masters.  As 
''Purchasers  of  Insurance"  the  Trustees  System 
Insurance  Agency  aligned  itself  permanently  as 
the  agent  of  the  average  man.  It  offered  to  go 
into  the  insurance  market  for  him,  advise  him 
confidentially  upon  the  kind  of  insurance  and 
company  which  should  meet  his  requirements  to 
best  advantage,  scrutinize  the  terms  and  condi- 
tions entered  in  the  policy  which  should  determine 


92  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

the  payment  of  losses,  and  thoroughly  explain  in 
clear  and  practical  ways  these  often  obscure  and 
technical  clauses.  Moreover,  it  would  be  just  as 
interested  in  seeing  all  losses  promptly  paid  as 
in  writing  the  original  policy. 

There  are  three  absolute  essentials  in  the  pur- 
chase of  any  insurance. 

First.  A  policy  exactly  suited  to  the  buyer's 
needs. 

Second.  A  full  and  clear  understanding  of 
its  terms. 

Third.    Prompt  settlement  of  all  claims  of  loss. 

Too  often  the  first  of  these  essentials  is  con- 
fused in  the  agent's  mind  with  either  the  amount 
of  his  commission  or  the  ease  with  which  a  make- 
shift policy  may  be  secured.  Particularly  is  this 
true  in  the  writing  of  life  insurance;  but  it  also 
applies  to  fire  and  other  insurance.  Rates  charged 
for  the  various  classes  of  insurance  are  frequently 
misapplied,  and  the  purchaser  charged  an  exces- 
sive rate  because  the  agent  misunderstood  condi- 
tions. 

A  case  of  this  kind  was  found  when  the  Trus- 
tees System  organization  purchased  the  building 
in  Chicago  occupied  by  its  Englewood  Neighbor- 
hood Office,  at  818  W.  63d  Street.  Fire  insurance 
carried  on  this  building,  it  was  found,  had  been 
written  at  $1.90,  when  the  rate  should  have  been 
only  $0.85  per  hundred.  Whether  the  value  of 
the  policy  runs  to  $25,000,  $50,000,  or  only,  per- 


WRITING  INSURANCE  THAT  INSURES     93 

haps,  $5,000,  the  money  loss  may  be  considerable. 

Only  one  method  in  the  writing  of  insurance 
will  protect  the  purchaser  against  such  errors.  It 
is  the  method  conscientiously  followed  by  the 
Trustees  System  Insurance  Agency,  to  treat  each 
risk  as  a  separate  and  distinct  proposition,  to  be 
carefully  studied  and  thoroughly  understood  be- 
fore any  attempt  is  made  to  write  the  insurance. 

When  the  purchaser  of  insurance  through  this 
agency  receives  his  policy,  he  knows  that  he  has 
secured  insurance  of  standard  character,  so  writ- 
ten that  it  meets  the  particular  details  of  the 
property  and  conditions  he  desires  to  have  thor- 
oughly covered.  Service  of  this  kind  is  of  the 
utmost  value  to  anyone  buying  insurance  of  any 
kind. 

Moreover,  the  importance  to  the  purchaser  of 
knowing  the  exact  conditions  upon  which  he  has 
accepted  insurance  can  scarcely  be  overstated. 
Many  a  man,  having  bought  perfectly  good  in- 
surance, accurately  written,  has  invalidated  his 
policies  repeatedly  through  ignorance  of  their 
terms.  Insurance  does  not  always  and  every- 
where insure. 

For  instance,  a  young  man  had  his  household 
goods  insured  in  St.  Joe,  Michigan.  Securing  em- 
ployment in  Chicago,  he  moved  there  some  months 
later,  first  taking  the  precaution  to  have  the  local 
agent  who  sold  him  his  insurance  "transfer"  the 
policy  to  the  new  location.    But  the  agent  had  no 


94  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

authority  to  make  any  such  ''transfer"  from  one 
state  to  another;  and  only  by  consulting  the  in- 
formation bureau  in  the  Trustees  System  office 
was  the  error  discovered. 

This  Information  Bureau,  provided  for  free 
service  to  all  who  may  bring  in  their  policies,  is 
a  feature  of  each  insurance  department  in  a 
Trustees  System  office.  It  has  performed  an  in- 
calculable good  to  many  thousands  of  people. 
Numberless  policies  are  brought  into  each  of  these 
bureaus  every  week,  most  of  which  fortunately  are 
found  to  be  carefully  and  properly  written;  but 
now  and  then  one  is  discovered  which,  in  the  case 
of  damages  having  been  sustained,  would  have 
left  the  policy  holder  no  possible  chance  to  re- 
cover his  loss. 

Losses,  when  sustained,  are  usually  paid  with 
reasonable  despatch  by  any  reputable  insurance 
company.  But  the  insurance  companies  rated  as 
''Standard"  have  a  worthy  pride  and  efficiency  in 
the  prompt  meeting  of  losses  that  is  a  pleasure 
both  to  the  insured  and  the  agency  selling  the 
insurance.  Surely  the  question  of  the  reliability 
of  the  company  should  never  have  to  enter  into 
the  purchase  of  any  insurance.  The  man  buying 
INSURANCE  should  not  care  to  carry  at  his  own 
risJc  the  possibility  that  a  single  dollar  of  his 
policy  might  never  be  paid. 

The  Trustees  System  Insurance  Agency 
policies  are  supplied  only  in  Standard  companies. 


WRITING  INSURANCE  THAT  INSURES     95 

These  policies  are  written  for  every  possible 
kind  of  property  and  to  meet  every  kind  of  cover- 
age. The  better  known  kinds  of  insurance,  of 
course,  are  Life,  Fire,  Automobile,  Accident  and 
Health,  Burglary,  Theft,  Tornado,  Plate  Glass, 
Compensation,  etc.,  but  there  are  numberless 
divisions  and  variations  in  practically  everyone 
of  these  general  classes.  They  are  all  included 
in  the  daily  business  of  this  agency. 

The  executives  who  handle  this  important 
branch  of  the  Trustees  System  Service  are  in- 
surance experts.  Each  of  them  has  had  a  long 
experience  in  the  general  insurance  field  and  is 
abundantly  qualified  by  this  experience  and  by 
his  appreciation  and  enthusiasm  for  the  high 
ideals  of  the  Trustees  System  organization  to  give 
to  his  clients  the  very  best  service  at  his  com- 
mand. 

Throughout  the  entire  organization  there  are, 
therefore,  many  satisfied  policy  holders,  accumu- 
lated through  several  years  of  tried  service,  whose 
business  has  been  carefully  handled  by  these  ex- 
pert service  men ;  and  they  have  built  up  a  worthy 
spirit  of  emulation  among  themselves,  whose  ideal 
is  crystallized  in  their  department  slogan,  **  In- 
surance that  Insures!" 


CHAPTER  XII 
Service  in  Home  Buying 

r[E  organization  of  a  Real  Estate  Depart- 
ment as  a  subsidiary  business  of  Trustees 
System  was  a  logical  outgrowth  of  the  great 
Plan  of  Service.  It  was  essential  that  this  service, 
the  fourth  in  the  list  covering  the  Average  Man's 
important  personal  business  needs,  should  be 
available  with  the  three  others,  including  loans, 
insurance  and  investments,  in  order  to  give  to 
him  that  complete  Industrial  Banking  Service 
which  might  fit  his  business  life. 

The  home  is  the  unit  of  all  stable  things.  All 
life — social,  industrial,  business  and  national — re- 
volves about  it.  Progress  waits  upon  its  confident 
establishment,  and  where  the  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple are  not  home  dwellers,  there  inevitably  lurk 
envy,  discord  and  drifting  human  vice. 

The  first  men  assumed  civilization  when  they 
made  permanent  homes  for  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren. Men  today  carry  the  world  forward  to  the 
steady  sound  of  hammers  nailing  the  last  shingles 
upon  finished  modem  rooftrees.  The  possession 
of  a  home  is  the  sure  sign  of  ability  and  success, 
the  visible  reward  of  industry,  thrift  and  good 
citizenship. 

Every  man  worthy  the  name,  therefore,  ar- 

96 


SERVICE  IN  HOME  BUYING  97 

dently  desires  a  home  of  his  own.  The  greatest 
handicap  of  our  modern  life  is  doubtless  the  fact 
that  increasing  costs  of  all  building  materials 
have  made  it  so  difficult  for  this  worthy  dream 
to  be  realized.  For  the  Average  Man,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  his  dream  is  only  of  a  modest  cot- 
tage, has  no  great  quantity  either  of  money  or  of 
goods,  and  must  plan,  wait  and  save  frequently 
through  a  long  period  of  years  before  his  slowly 
accumulating  wealth  will  allow  him  to  assume  in 
the  open  market  the  unfamiliar  importance  of  a 
home  buyer. 

Perhaps  no  more  important  and  confidential 
relationship  exists  in  business  life  today  than  that 
between  the  dealer  in  realty  values  and  the  man 
who  desires  to  invest  his  hard  won  savings  in  a 
home. 

The  time,  fortunately,  has  gone  by  when  any- 
one, as  the  saying  was,  ''could  hang  out  his 
shingle"  and  become  an  established  real  estate 
agent  over  night.  These  are  days  of  larger  values, 
better  living  and  nicer  discrimination  in  the  choice 
of  business  agents.  Men  must  honestly  win  the 
confidence  of  others  before  a  worthy  trust  is 
placed  in  them. 

Tlie  dealer  in  realty  values  wins  this  confidence 
through  an  apprenticeship  in  no  wise  less  exact- 
ing than  that  demanded  in  any  other  business 
of  investment  character.  He  should  spend  a  good 
many  years  in  the  scientific  study  of  his  profes- 


98  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

sioii,  and  must  know  in  thorough  fashion  not  only 
the  prevailing  prices  of  his  own  community  and 
time,  but  also  the  basic  values  of  other  years  and 
many  other  communities. 

He  will  also  be  an  expert  in  the  interpretation 
of  legal  documents,  an  advisor  in  real  estate  law, 
a  student  of  taxes  and  economics  and  public  wel- 
fare, and  an  ardent  advocate  of  good  government 
and  every  forward  pushing  idea  of  his  day. 

Only  by  the  mastering  of  these  wide  and  liberal 
subjects  will  he  be  thoroughly  fitted  for  that  in- 
timate relationship  essential  in  the  wise  interpre- 
tation of  the  needs  of  the  home  buyer.  In  short, 
he  must  qualify  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  the 
servant  of  his  client. 

It  will  readily  be  understood,  therefore,  that 
the  Trustees  System  organization,  in  enlarging 
its  scope  to  include  a  real  estate  service,  merely 
completed  the  circle  which  embraced  its  eifective- 
ness  as  the  servant  of  Average  men  and  women. 

In  establishing  the  Realty  Service  Departments 
in  its  Industrial  Banks,  it  first  reached  out  to  se- 
cure the  services  of  men  whose  personal  and 
business  qualities  might  undoubtedly  fit  the  exact- 
ing requirements  of  its  service  ideals.  With  these 
men  once  secured,  the  rapid  upbuilding  and  suc- 
cess of  the  departments  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 

For  success  depended  upon  two  wide  sources  of 
business,  in  each  of  which  the  organization  was 
particularly  fitted  to  give  unusual  service. 


SERVICE  IN  HOME  BUYING  99 

The  first  of  these  is  the  ever  growing  army  of 
its  own  shareholders;  and  the  second,  that  still 
more  rapidly  increasing  army  of  workers,  whose 
aspirations  reach  out  for  homes  and  greater  op- 
portunity, and  whose  acquaintance  and  friendship 
the  Industrial  Bank  is  making  every  day  through 
its  wonderful  loans  service. 

This  loans  service  offers  the  ambitious  man 
possibly  the  greatest  opportunity  available  to  him 
in  the  purchase  of  a  home.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  that  the  usual  cash  payment  demanded  by  the 
home  builder  is  so  large  that  it  is  extremely  diffi- 
cult for  the  average  person  to  meet.  It  is  made 
high  for  two  reasons,  because  the  seller  desires 
a  sufficiently  large  sum  to  render  him,  as  he  con- 
siders, ''safe,"  and  because  the  constantly  in- 
creasing demand  for  houses  makes  a  sale  a  very 
easy  thing  to  accomplish. 

Thus  the  worker,  with  only  his  weekly  or 
monthly  wage  to  depend  on,  must  institute  a  long 
course  of  thrifty  saving  and  self-denial  before 
he  can  approach  the  goal  of  his  ambition. 

Trustees  System  Service,  however,  has  effec- 
tively brought  this  goal  much  nearer  to  him 
through  its  liberal  loans  plan.  It  cannot  contract 
to  supply  all  of  the  initial  payment  demanded  in 
the  purchase  of  a  home.  That  would  neither  be 
wise  nor  sound  business.  The  worker  must  show 
his  capacity  to  carry  through  his  plan  of  home 
buying  by  starting  a  saving  campaign  and  ac- 


100  THE   GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

cumulating  a  reasonable  sum.  But  when  this  is 
done,  by  going  to  the  Industrial  Bank  and  laying 
his  plans  before  it,  a  friendly  hand  will  be  ex- 
tended to  him  and  substantial  assistance  rendered 
in  meeting  the  initial  cash  payment  which  may  be 
necessary. 

This  kind  of  constructive  service  has  already 
been  the  source  of  great  benefit  to  large  numbers 
of  men  and  women  who  otherw^ise  might  never 
have  acquired  a  home  of  their  own.  It  is  a  service 
also  available  to  the  shareholder,  of  course,  just 
as  every  part  of  the  diversified  Industrial  Bank- 
ing Service  is  available  for  the  use  of  any  man 
or  woman  w^ho  works. 

Moreover,  the  realty  buyer  finds  in  the  office 
of  the  Industrial  Bank  that  other  service  most 
essential  for  his  protection — namely,  insurance. 
The  co-operation  between  these  two  departments 
in  the  effective  service  of  men  and  women  is  very 
large  indeed.  And  a  similar  co-operation  is  found 
in  the  Credit  Department  when  it  is  sometimes 
necessary  to  learn  important  facts  about  the  in- 
dividual owning  or  about  to  purchase  property. 

These  Eealty  Service  Departments  do  a  gen- 
eral real  estate  business  in  each  community  where 
they  have  been  established.  They  are  by  no  means 
restricted  to  the  handling  of  property  belonging 
to  shareholders,  or  to  the  sale  of  homes  to  workers. 
But  each  department  is  efficiently  supplied  with 
the    most    advantageous    listings    of    properties 


SERVICE  IN  HOME  BUYING  101 

which  may  be  at  all  available  to  the  market,  and 
they  endeavor  successfully  to  serve  with  the  same 
high  enthusiasm  any  who  come  to  the  Industrial 
Bank. 

The  broad  scope  of  their  service  will  be  under- 
stood from  the  fact  that  they  offer  the  best  types 
of  realty  investments,  with  valuable  counsel  along 
these  lines. 

In  no  other  department  of  the  Trustees  Sys- 
tem Service  is  a  more  important  bureau  of  in- 
formation and  counsel  available  than  that  fur- 
nished by  this  Department  of  Home  Buying. 
Many  a  man,  about  to  invest  or  sign  a  realty  con- 
tract, finds  it  wise  to  consult  the  Industrial  Bank; 
and  general  appraisals  of  values  are  often  sought 
by  those  who  want  to  be  confident  they  have  chosen 
the  proper  course. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Trustees  System  Personnel 

ANY  discussion  of  the  personnel  of  a  business 
organization  will  immediately  bring  before 
""the  mind  of  the  reader  a  more  or  less  non- 
descript picture  of  a  group  of  employes.  While 
this  is  true  also  of  the  Trustees  System  organiza- 
tion, a  description  of  its  personnel  will  be  found 
unique,  in  that  the  extent  and  vital  effectiveness 
of  this  personnel  is  not  limited  to  the  immediate 
co-workers,  but  reaches  out  to  the  personality  of 
everyone  who  has  become  a  partner  in  the  great 
business  of  service. 

It  is  proper  to  speak  first,  however,  of  the  em- 
ployes who  are  in  active  conduct  of  the  various 
Industrial  Banking  branches. 

These  are  a  company  of  men  and  women 
chosen  for  some  unusual  qualities.  Perhaps  there 
is  no  business  in  America  which  places  a  higher 
value  upon  individuality.  Individuality  is  the 
natural  expression  of  intelligence  and  industry, 
and  the  Trustees  System  Industrial  Banking 
Service  today  is  eminently  the  result  of  the  per- 
sonal efforts  of  many  men  and  women  genuinely 
inspired  with  the  vision  of  its  unselfish  service. 

Many  of  these  employes,  some  who  have  gro^vn 
to  places  of  leadership  and  supreme  management, 

102 


THE  TRUSTEES  SYSTEM  PERSONNEL  103 

were  attracted  to  the  organization  in  the  early, 
difficult  days  when  it  was  still  an  unproved  ex- 
periment. Their  loyalty  is  matched  only  by  that 
of  many  others  who  joined  its  ranks  during  the 
following  developing  years,  and  who  have  helped 
greatly  in  building  the  substantial  framework  of 
its  modern  business  structure. 

In  seeking  service  they  have  invariably  found 
extraordinary  opportunity.  Few  business  organi- 
zations of  any  kind  have  grown  with  greater 
rapidity  and  success  than  Trustees  System 
Service.  As  new  branches  were  opened,  new  ter- 
ritories developed,  it  became  imperative  that 
capable  men  be  found  to  manage  and  serve  them. 
These  men,  wherever  possible,  have  been  taken 
from  offices  of  the  Service  already  established,  and 
when  sent  into  new  fields  the  very  great  per- 
centage of  them  have  made  good. 

Not  only  has  this  been  true  in  the  past;  but 
opportunity  waits  just  as  emphatically  upon  the 
ambitious  worker  in  the  ranks  of  the  Trustees 
System  organization  today.  The  growth  of  this 
wonderful  service  never  hesitates  or  stops.  New 
branches  are  continually  being  planned.  The 
future  holds  no  more  golden  promise  for  the 
Trustees  System  of  Industrial  Banking  than  it 
does  for  the  man  or  woman  in  its  employ  who 
is  daily  developing  his  opportunities. 

These  men  have  made  good  in  the  past,  and 
many  others  will  make  good  in  the  future,  largely. 


104  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

of  course,  because  of  the  earnest  cultivation  of 
their  native  abilities,  but  fundamentally  because 
of  their  belief  in  and  devotion  to  the  Trustees 
System  ideals  of  service. 

The  picture,  therefore,  which  should  lie  before 
the  mind  of  the  reader  is  surely  that  of  an  at- 
tractive and  worthy  company.  They  are  a  body 
of  men  and  women  thoroughly  imbued  w^ith  the 
spirit  of  enthusiasm  to  serve.  They  live  and  talk 
the  business  of  Industrial  Banking.  Its  high  pur- 
poses fit  the  broad  honesty  of  their  own  hearts, 
and  the  question  of  wage  or  salary  is  secondary 
with  them  to  the  fine  satisfaction  they  have  in 
furthering  the  interests  of  this  great  service  busi- 
ness. 

Yet  this  picture,  after  all,  is  one  of  only  a 
comparatively  few  people.  It  must  be  extended 
and  enlarged  to  encompass  the  personalities  of 
many  thousands.  In  no  other  w^ay  is  it  possible 
to  gain  an  adequate  idea  of  that  much  larger  com- 
pany of  earnest  and  devoted  people  who  go  to 
make  up  the  true  personnel  of  Trustees  System. 

The  real  underlying  reason  why  Trustees  Sys- 
tem Service  has  won  the  universal  support  of  men 
and  women  is  that  men  love  their  fellows.  Dis- 
like, envy,  malice  are  qualities  foreign  to  the  hu- 
man heart.  Kindliness  is  the  rule;  and  when  op- 
portunity is  given  to  do  a  fellow  man  a  service, 
the  great  mass  of  men  and  women  hurry  to  offer 
him  both  sympathy  and  friendship. 


THE  TRUSTEES  SYSTEM  PERSONNEL  105 

Therein  is  the  fundamental  fact  which  accounts 
for  the  extraordinary  success  and  growth  of  this 
system  of  Industrial  Banking.  For  Trustees  Sys- 
tem Service  is  built  out  of  Friendship.  Everj'- 
shareholder  in  its  ranks  is  enlisted  principally  be- 
cause he  is  heartily  in  accord  with  its  single  desire 
to  render  service  to  mankind.  They  hold  a  just 
pride  in  being  identified  with  an  organization 
whose  impelling  motive  is  to  do  a  constructive, 
permanent  good  to  others. 

Each  of  them  has  seen  the  Vision  of  this 
service,  felt  the  compelling  urge  that  he  himself 
must  have  a  personal  part  in  making  its  effective- 
ness more  complete  and  far  reaching,  and  has 
joined  himself  willingly  with  a  host  of  others  to 
bring  its  purposes  about. 

They  are  a  great  company  of  idealists,  but  they 
are  not  engaged  in  a  philanthropy.  They  are 
united  in  a  soundly  organized  and  practical  busi- 
ness, because  they  recognize  that  no  large  or  per- 
manent good  can  come  out  of  efforts  that  are  not 
based  upon  the  firm  foundation  of  common  sense. 
Industrial  Banking  is  their  stable  and  legitimate 
business,  out  of  which  each  one  of  them  takes  a 
just  and  reasonable  profit;  but  their  paramount 
incentive  is  that  of  unselfish  service,  and  the  ques- 
tion of  money  profit  is  always  a  secondary  con- 
sideration. 

They  are  bound  together  through  a  common 
interest   that   is   bigger  than  money.     Workers 


106  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

themselves,  members  of  that  great  class  of  Aver- 
age men  and  women  who  are  the  backbone  of  our 
nation,  producers  of  the  wealth,  makers  of  law- 
givers and  courts  and  presidents,  yet  people  of 
moderate  means  and  eager  for  every  chance  at 
greater  opportunity,  they  appreciate  to  the  full 
the  value  of  friendly  ser\dce,  and  they  have  a  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  the  importance  of  Industrial 
Banking  Service  in  the  life  of  every  "Man  who 
Works." 

They  have  no  bigger  ambition  than  to  bring 
about  that  day  when  workers  throughout  all  of 
this  broad  land  shall  know  and  enjoy  the  oppor- 
tunities of  Industrial  Banking.  They  are  enlisted 
in  a  Great  Cause,  and  are  pledged,  one  to  another, 
to  do  all  within  their  power  to  gain  its  tremendous 
goal. 

This  pledge  of  co-operation  is  one  of  the  most 
important  steps  in  the  enrollment  of  any  worker 
in  the  ranks  of  the  Service.  He  is  not  asked  pri- 
marily to  invest  his  savings,  nor  encouraged  to 
undertake  any  thrift  plan  for  the  single  better- 
ment of  himself.  The  one  essential  thing  any  man 
or  woman  is  requested  to  do  in  order  to  secure 
membership  in  the  Trustees  System  organization 
is  to  place  his  belief  in  its  lofty  ideals  and  express 
a  voluntary  desire  to  help  other  men  and  women 
like  himself  attain  them. 

This  is  the  heart  of  the  power  of  Trustees  Sys- 
tem Service.    This  is  why  this  young  service  or- 


THE  TRUSTEES  SYSTEM  PERSONNEL  107 

ganization  has  grown  with  such  rapidity  and  why 
it  has  been  able  within  a  comparatively  few  years 
to  reach  and  serve  so  many  men  and  women  who 
need  it.  No  business  which  is  just  a  money  mak- 
ing business  could  spread  as  it  has  spread.  It  has 
leaped  to  a  national  importance  and  scope  because 
it  holds  in  its  keeping  the  warm  hearts  and  sym- 
pathies of  men. 

There  can  be  no  narrowness  in  the  membership 
of  such  an  organization.  Money  or  property  or 
position  in  life  cuts  no  figure  of  value.  Men,  the 
human  sympathies  of  many  men  and  women,  are 
the  only  things  that  count. 

Just  as  in  the  ability  to  secure  and  use  the 
liberal  loans  service,  personal  integrity  is  the  prin- 
cipal requirement,  so  in  acquiring  membership, 
Character  is  the  one  great  thing  desired.  The 
army  of  men  and  women  workers  back  of  the 
Trustees  System  Service  organization  are  staunch 
and  true  soldiers,  enlisted  in  a  personal  service 
that  they  love  to  carry  on. 

They  are  already  established  in  little  scattered 
groups  and  in  many  centralized  communities 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  country. 
Almost  every  state  in  all  the  forty-eight  has  scores 
of  representatives,  and  some  of  them  have  not 
only  hundreds  but  many  thousands.  Each  one  of 
them  is  a  dynamic  and  enthusiastic  proponent  of 
the  great  Service  and  all  that  Industrial  Banking 
can  mean  for  workers.    One  and  all,  they  look  back 


108  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

witli  wistful  eyes  to  the  cities  wliere  branches  of 
the  Service  are  already  in  active  operation,  and 
eagerly  anticipate  the  day  when  spreading  power 
and  influence  will  make  it  possible  for  a  Trustees 
System  Industrial  Bank  to  be  organized  in  their 
own  close  neighborhood. 

But  not  alone  in  our  own  country  are  these 
scattered  groups  of  loyal  members  to  be  found. 
Europe,  itself  the  original  home  of  co-operative 
Industrial  Banking,  has  many  men  and  women 
who  are  partners  in  this  far-reaching  Trustees 
System  Service.  They  are  in  England,  Ireland 
and  Belgium,  Germany  and  France  and  Italy, 
Switzerland,  Eoumania  and  Greece.  Still  other 
members  are  scattered  through  the  states  of  South 
America  and  a  few  even  in  far  Asia. 

So  it  may  truthfully  be  said  that  almost  the 
world  over  the  Trustees  System  of  Industrial 
Banking  is  already  favorably  known  and  appre- 
ciated for  what  it  is  doing  for  men  and  women 
who  work.  The  far  flung  network  of  its  members 
is  like  a  great  golden  w^eb  of  friendship,  binding 
workers  everywhere  into  closer  intimacy  and 
service,  and  spreading  the  story  of  co-operative 
Industrial  Banking  broadcast  over  the  land. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Telling  Men  the  Story 

IF  the  picture  presented  in  the  last  chapter  of 
this  record  has  carried  any  effective  message, 

it  is  that  of  a  vast  company  of  earnest  and 
virile  men  and  women,  inspired  with  a  lofty  and 
unselfish  ideal  of  service,  and  working  like  some 
great  instrument  towards  a  definite  goal  well 
within  their  view. 

It  is  a  splendid  fact  that  many  of  the  most 
effective  movements  in  this  world,  those  whose  re- 
sults have  been  felt  over  centuries  and  remained 
permanent,  were  the  organized  efforts  of  men  and 
women  bound  together  through  co-operation  for 
unselfish  ends. 

Witness  the  Crusades;  and  witness  all  reli- 
gions. Witness,  also,  in  our  own  day  the  spread- 
ing association  of  the  Red  Cross. 

Whether  the  motive  is  an  abstract  moral  ideal, 
or  a  practical  daily  effort  to  render  aid  to  those 
in  need,  unselfish  Service  is  the  greatest  thing  in 
the  world.  Men  enlisted  in  service  to  others  can- 
not be  defeated,  find  no  limit  to  the  scope  and 
splendor  of  the  work  which  they  can  do. 

The  Trustees  System  Service  organization  is 
one  of  the  most  purely  co-operative  mutual  asso- 
ciations in  existence.    No  Industrial  Banking  or- 

109 


110  THE  GOAL  OP  THE  BUILDERS 

ganization  any^vliere  in  the  world  matches  it  in 
the  broad  liberality  of  its  service  or  in  the  effect- 
tive  thoroughness  of  its  partnership.  Its  plan  is 
distinctly  American.  It  deserves  to  be,  and  one 
day  undoubtedly  it  will  be,  known  throughout  our 
own  country  as  a  truly  national  institution  with  a 
hundred  prosperous  branches  where  today  it  has 
but  one. 

The  worthy  instrument  which  will  succeed  in 
spreading  this  great  organization  is  the  member- 
ship— the  shareholding  partners — in  its  ranks.  It 
is  so  that  all  other  mutual  associations  have 
been  spread  to  best  advantage.  Each  has  grown 
swiftly,  gained  effective  power  and  influence,  just 
as  the  men  and  women  who  were  its  members  have 
become  inspired  with  the  urge  of  its  high  service 
and  have  carried  the  message  to  others  by  word 
of  mouth. 

No  voice  has  a  force  or  persuasive  effective- 
ness like  that  of  a  friend.  It  is  to  friends  and 
acquaintances,  men  and  women  in  their  own  neigh- 
borhoods, workers  in  the  same  communities,  that 
Trustees  System  members  carry  the  story  of  this 
service.  They  have  a  wonderful  story  to  tell,  a 
story  that  reaches  into  the  personal  experience 
and  ambitions  of  every  "Man  who  Works";  and 
they  find  in  every  listener  a  ready  and  an  appre- 
ciative ear. 

For  the  more  effective  spreading  of  this  story 
they  are  organized  into  a  great  Association  of 


TELLING  MEN  THE  STORY  111 

friendly  propagandists.  It  is  called  the  Trustees 
System  National  Association.  This  Association 
was  brought  into  being  during  the  summer  of 
1920,  but  it  already  numbers  among  its  members 
the  great  bulk  of  the  Trustees  System  sharehold- 
ing partners,  and  in  addition  many  others  who 
have  joined  its  body  as  Associate  Members, 
through  a  high  and  loyal  interest  in  the  better 
advancement  of  Industrial  Banking  ideals. 

The  central  aim  and  object  of  the  Trustees 
System  National  Association  is  just  to  spread  the 
influence  and  power  of  Industrial  Banking  Service 
by  telling  men  the  absorbing  story.  Its  members 
are  bound  together  to  further  the  interests  of  this 
Service  in  every  way  they  can.  They  are  filled 
with  an  enthusiasm  that  is  rapidly  Avinning  a  big 
and  lasting  success. 

There  is  strength  in  numbers.  There  is  also 
a  fine  consciousness  of  that  strength.  The  union 
of  many  minds  thinking  upon  one  idea,  interested 
in  a  common  goal,  is  an  irresistible  force,  worthy 
of  any  purpose.  The  body  of  men  and  women 
who  make  up  the  Trustees  System  National  Asso- 
ciation is  already  a  vital  force  reaching  through 
hundreds  of  communities  and  effectively  influenc- 
ing men  to  bigger  and  better  things.  They  will 
continue  to  grow  in  numbers  and  strength  until 
their  influence  will  eventually  be  felt  across  the 
whole  of  our  nation. 

Their  interests  will  be  national  interests.    For 


112  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

this  great  Association  is  for  fundamentally  con- 
structive ends,  and  whatever  is  good  in  govern- 
ment or  social  or  business  life  will  meet  with  their 
hearty  support.  Our  nation  is  governed  by  and  for 
the  people,  and  its  laws  are  framed  with  no  other 
end  in  view  than  the  fuller  happiness  and  pros- 
perity of  all  of  these  people.  It  will,  therefore,  be 
a  part  of  the  business  of  the  Trustees  System 
National  Association  to  see  to  it  that  just  laws  are 
made  for  the  good  of  Industrial  Banking  Service. 

Laws  are  now"  needed  to  harmonize  over  the 
many  states  the  conflicting  acts  of  legislatures 
controlling  the  loaning  of  money  at  equitable 
rates.  Other  laws  are  needed  legalizing  and  en- 
couraging the  many  plans  of  sound  Industrial 
Banking  Service.  Real  Blue  Sky  laws,  national 
in  scope,  must  be  framed  and  passed  which  will 
protect  the  small  investor  and  at  the  same  time 
give  to  him  the  fullest  opportunity  to  gain  the 
whole  earning  poAver  of  the  dollar  he  invests  in 
business  enterprise. 

The  National  Association  will  also  seek  to  pro- 
tect Industrial  Banking  Service  from  the  attacks 
of  selfish  people  who  would  destroy  it.  For  it  is 
a  woeful  fact  that  no  great  movement  undertaken 
for  the  welfare  of  workers,  or  for  any  other  great 
class  of  mankind,  has  ever  been  attempted  but  it 
has  met  with  the  opposition  and  bitter  enmity  of 
some  other  class  of  individuals. 

These  enemies  are  invariably  people  whose  per- 


TELLING  MEN  THE  STORY  113 

sonal  interests  are  interfered  with  and  their  un- 
just profits  cut  otf  by  the  new  movement.  Thus 
every  liberal  advance  in  the  world  has  been  fought 
bitterly  by  some  one  or  more  of  these  rival  forces 
whose  vested  interests  were  at  stake. 

In  the  case  of  Industrial  Banking  Service, 
these  classes  and  interests  are  embodied  in  the 
multitude  of  loan  sharks  and  other  usurers  whose 
greedy  talons  are  fastened  deeply  in  the  com- 
munity of  every  body  of  workers.  It  is  only  a 
matter  of  time  until  the  young  but  rapidly  grow- 
ing power  of  Trustees  System  Service  will  be 
arrayed  in  desperate  battle  against  these  foes. 

There  is,  however,  one  force  that  can  be 
brought  to  bear  against  any  attack  upon  Indus- 
trial Banking  Service  that  is  bound  to  win  in  the 
end.  This  splendid  force  is  the  single  power  of 
Knowledge. 

Knowledge,  full  understanding  of  Truth,  is 
what  molds  the  opinions  of  men,  what  makes  the 
laws,  what  determines  the  decisions  of  courts. 
When  men  and  women  come  to  understand  thor- 
oughly what  the  Trustees  System  of  Industrial 
Banking  IS  and  DOES,  no  opposition  and  no  at- 
tack, however  furious,  can  stand  before  it. 

For  everyone  who  knows  about  Trustees  Sys- 
tem Service  is  its  friend.  These  friends  are 
already  legion,  and  through  the  influence  of  the 
National  Association  they  are  increasing  rapidly 
in  number  every  day.    Moreover,  a  powerful  in- 


114  THE   GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

structive  journal  is  published  by  the  National 
Association,  called  the  Industrial  Banker,  whose 
single  object  is  to  carry  the  wonderful  message 
of  this  great  Service  into  the  home  of  every  "Man 
who  Works ' '  that  it  can  reach. 

The  Banker  is  the  only  journal  or  magazine 
wholly  devoted  to  Industrial  Banking  and  the 
thrift  interests  of  average  men  and  women  in 
America.  Banks,  all  financial  houses  and  prac- 
tically every  other  big  business  interest  have  their 
■own  class  journals  by  the  hundred.  Each  of  them 
is  filled  with  articles  and  infonnation  of  particular 
interest  and  value  to  the  members  of  the  class  it 
serves;  but  none  of  these  magazines  or  journals 
goes  to  the  trouble  to  devote  much  of  its  space 
to  an  honest  and  liberal  discussion  of  Industrial 
Banking  Service. 

The  Banker,  on  the  contrary,  has  no  other  mis- 
sion than  to  make  plain  to  workers  how  best  to 
take  advantage  of  money  service  made  available 
to  them  through  the  liberal  Industrial  Bank.  Its 
mission  is  educational.  Its  attractive  pages  are 
filled  with  suggestions  and  information  of  per- 
sonal importance  to  every  "Man  who  Works." 
The  Banker  is  one  of  the  greatest  agencies  for  the 
defeat  of  ignorance  and  the  destruction  of  the 
worker's  chains  there  is  in  America  today. 

This  valuable  journal  goes  to  the  home  of 
€very  member  of  the  Trustees  System  National 
Association,  helping  him  as  a  wise  counselor  and 


TELLING  MEN  THE   STORY 


115 


™=  INDUSTRIAL  R 


WHAT  KATIONAL  BANKS  HAVE  DONE  TOR  BIG  BUSINESS 
TRUSTEES  SYSTEM  18  SOINO  FOR  THE- 'MAN  WHO  WORKS' 


W 


Another  Splendid  Banker 


32  Big  Pa£e«,  Fillo]  from  Cover  to  Cover  Tvitli  tte  Kmil  of 

Intererting  Articles,  Pictures  anJ  Information  Tnat 

Average  Men  and  ^Vomen  Can  Use  in 

Tbeir  Personal  Lives. 


Read  All  Atout 

TLe  Advance  of  Trustees  System  Service  Into  Eastern  States. 
TKe  Story  of  One  Little  Industrial  Dank  s  Gro-wtK  in  Canada. 
A^Hiy  It  Is  tliat  Trustees  System  Is  on  tne  Crest  of  Success? 
Does  Your  Money  Loaf  on  tte  Jot  or  Does  It  Work  for  You? 
^^tat  a  Louisville  PKysician  ^V^tes  of  Trustees  System. 
Special  Prize  Offer  Made  for  National  Association  Members. 
President  Corcoran  s  Virile  Editorial  on  "Looking  Forward. 

NEXT  MONTH!     READ    IN   ANOTHER   BIG 

BANKER  ALL  ABOUT 

■THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS' 


'm 


j=s: 


MAY,     1921 


COVER   PAGE  OF  THE   INDUSTRIAL  BANKER 

The  only  journal  devoted  to  Industrial  Banking  Service  in  America. 


116  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

friend  in  spreading  the  story  of  what  Industrial 
Banking  Service  can  do,  both  for  him  and  for  his 
friends.  Through  the  personal  efforts  of  these 
Association  members  it  is  also  reaching  the  homes 
of  new  thousands  of  readers  every  year.  It  is 
making  friends  wherever  it  is  received,  and  few 
there  are  who  come  to  know  about  the  National 
Association  through  its  columns  who  do  not  hasten 
to  enroll  themselves  as  members  and  active  par- 
tisans of  Industrial  Banking  Service. 

It  should  be  understood  that  the  Trustees  Sys- 
tem National  Association  is  purely  a  non-profit 
seeking  organization.  It  has  no  interest  other 
than  the  furthering  of  knowledge  in  every  possible 
way  about  Industrial  Banking  Service.  Its  oflScers 
serve  without  compensation  of  any  kind,  save  the 
fine  satisfaction  they  feel  over  the  growth  of  the 
organization  and  the  rapid  advance  being  made 
by  these  great  and  vital  ideals. 

The  small  annual  Membership  Fee  of  the  Asso- 
ciation is  used  in  distributing  the  various  printed 
matter  and  thrift  helps  that  go  out  to  each  mem- 
ber. These  include  the  Certificate  of  Membership, 
the  Membership  Card  and  the  annual  volume  of 
Thrift  Budgets,  in  addition  to  the  monthly  copy 
of  the  Industrial  Banker. 

The  Trustees  System  National  Association  is 
one  of  the  finest  ''Booster"  clubs  in  the  world. 
It  has  abundantly  justified  its  organization.  Its 
thousands   of  members  have  not  one  only,  but 


TELLING  MEN  THE  STORY  117 

scores  and  even  hundreds  of  interests  in  common, 
and  many  of  these  are  the  fundamental  ones  of 
better  personal  living,  larger  happiness,  and  the 
confident  growth  of  that  security  which  arises 
from  increasing  financial  independence. 

One  and  all,  they  are  deeply  and  enthusias- 
tically interested  in  the  welfare  of  their  great  As- 
sociation and  of  the  Service  it  represents.  They 
are  Friends  of  all  the  workers  of  the  world;  and 
they  have  no  greater  ambition  than  to  carry  the 
story  of  Industrial  Banking  Service  to  all  who 
need  and  should  use  it  every  day. 


CHAPTER  XV 
The  Goal  of  the  Builders 

SOMETIMES  we  meet  with  a  certain  type  of 
man  who  likes  to  sneer  at  enthusiasm.  He 
would  have  us  believe  that  things  which  are 
done  under  the  spur  of  enthusiasm  cannot  be  as 
good  as  those  which,  he  terms,  are  done  under  cold 
and  deliberate  action. 

Possibly  the  world  may  be  able  to  use  such  a 
man  for  a  good  purpose,  but  the  fact  is  that  little 
has  been  accomplished  without  this  divine  spur  he 
scorns.  The  best  things,  all  the  really  worth-while 
things  of  life,  are  done  with  enthusiasm.  Sin- 
cerity of  purpose,  conviction  of  judgment,  must 
have  the  steam  power  of  enthusiasm  behind  them 
before  ever  they  can  accomplish  any  large  or  per- 
manent measure  of  success. 

The  chapters  of  this  book,  it  is  freely  con- 
fessed, have  been  written  with  enthusiasm.  In  no 
other  way  would  it  be  possible  for  one  who  knows 
all  about  Trustees  System  Service  to  write.  No 
true  picture  could  be  given,  either  of  its  ideals, 
its  service  or  its  personnel,  which  did  not  seek 
adequately  to  portray  the  fine  and  lofty  spirit 
which  animates  every  integral  part  of  the  organi- 
zation. 

The  structure  of  Trustees  System  Service  is 

118 


THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS  119 

built  out  of  enthusiasm.  This  book  will  have  ac- 
complished its  triumphant  mission  only  when  it  is 
shown  conclusively  that  the  ideals  and  purposes 
of  this  Service  are  among  the  very  highest  know^n 
in  any  co-operative  or  business  organization ;  and 
that  from  the  inception  of  the  idea  upon  which  it 
was  founded  its  chief  aim  has  always  been  a  sin- 
cere and  unselfish  helpfulness  to  mankind. 

But  Trustees  System  Service  is  not  the  only 
type  of  Industrial  Banking  in  existence ;  nor  is  it 
a  new  or  even  a  partly  new  idea.  Industrial 
Banks,  People 's  Banks,  Credit  Unions,  or  by  what- 
ever other  name  they  may  be  called,  have  existed 
for  years  in  many  of  the  countries  of  the  world; 
and  each  has  wrought  its  tremendous  good  to 
workers  and  others  who  have  always  lacked  finan- 
cial aid  in  the  day  of  their  need  or  opportunity. 

The  sober  fact  is,  and  surely  this  is  worthy  of 
the  thoughtful  attention  of  any  reader,  that  In- 
dustrial Banking  has  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury been  recognized  by  government  in  half  the 
countries  of  Europe  as  a  worthy,  stable  and  in- 
dispensable institution,  without  which  the  basic 
prosperity  of  France,  Italy,  Germany,  Russia, 
Switzerland  and  many  other  countries  would  fall 
far  short  indeed. 

Only  in  our  own  country  have  we  lagged  and 
largely  missed  the  opportunity  to  make  this  great 
service  a  fundamental  blessing  to  all  men  and 
women.     America  has  no  friendly  law  fostering 


120  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

and  encouraging  Industrial  Banking  across  the 
whole  of  our  land.  Some  half-hearted  laws  have 
been  passed  in  one  or  two  of  the  states  legalizing 
a  feeble  type  of  Credit  Union,  but  no  real  effort 
on  a  large  scale  has  been  made  by  those  in  author- 
ity to  meet  the  vast  need  for  a  more  liberal  and 
just  small  loans  service. 

Nevertheless,  private  enterprise  has  accom- 
plished on  a  moderate  scale  what  government  has 
failed  to  do.  In  spite  of  the  handicap  of  narrow 
and  antiquated  laws,  which  singularly  seem  some- 
times to  favor  the  loan  shark  and  usurer,  several 
worthy  types  of  Industrial  Banking  have  been  es- 
tablished in  the  United  States,  all  of  which  have 
been  successful ;  and  none  has  been  more  broadly 
liberal  in  the  effective  encouragement  it  extended 
to  workers  than  Trustees  System  Service. 

The  statement  has  been  made  that  this  Service 
is  not  a  new  idea,  but  this  is  not  strictly  and 
unqualifiedly  true.  Although  every  idea  con- 
tained both  in  its  scheme  of  Service  and  of 
business  organization  had  been  known  and  used 
before,  the  particular  combination  of  the  whole  of 
them  in  a  plan  of  Industrial  Banking  never  had 
been  tried. 

The  originality  of  an  idea  lies  surely  in  the 
value  and  use  to  which  it  may  be  put.  When 
the  founders  of  Trustees  System  Service  took  the 
scattered  ideas  of  others  and  re-grouped  them  in 
a  practical  working  plan  which  might  be  carried 


THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS  121 

to  completion  as  a  successful  business  enterprise, 
that  plan  had  all  the  right  and  value  of  a  wholly 
new  idea. 

These  scattered  ideas  were  gathered  from 
every  available  source.  The  founders  of  Trustees 
System  Service  had  in  mind  an  ideal  which  no 
existing  plan  of  Industrial  Banking  might  fit.  Out 
of  the  multitude  of  good  ideas  which  had  proved 
beneficial  and  successful  in  all  the  co-operative 
People's  Banks  of  the  world,  in  their  w^isdom  they 
selected  the  best,  and  molded  these  into  that  Plan 
of  Service  which  should  be  particularly  adapted  to 
the  needs  and  abilities  of  American  men  and 
women. 

The  co-workers  and  members  of  the  personnel 
of  Trustees  System  have  a  right,  therefore,  to  be 
enthusiastic  over  the  record  made  by  this  great 
Plan.  It  is  an  inspiring  record,  a  story  of  absorb- 
ing interest,  which  no  "Man  who  Works"  may 
read  without  feeling  that  here  is  a  thing,  a  big, 
constructive,  working  enterprise,  which  has  a 
direct  bearing  upon  his  life  and  better  fortunes 
and  in  which  he  must  have  a  personal  and  a  vital 
part. 

The  Trustees  System  Plan  of  Service  is  not 
just  a  clever  and  beautiful  scheme  for  the  relief 
of  men  bowed  down  with  debt.  However  worthy 
it  may  be  to  furnish  liberal  funds  at  low  interest 
rates  and  thus  defeat  the  devilish  machinations  of 
those  who  fatten  upon  the  broken  lives  of  the  un- 


122  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

fortunate  and  the  oppressed,  the  Trustees  System 
plan  of  Industrial  Banking  goes  much  further 
than  that. 

It  has  a  double  fundamental  purpose.  It  en- 
deavors successfully  to  accomplish  everything 
that  the  sometimes  mistaken  generosity  of  the 
philanthropist  might  do,  but  its  second  and  greater 
aim  is  to  assist  in  building  anew  these  sorely  tried 
and  broken  lives. 

Since  time  began  men  have  struggled  for  equal 
treatment  and  equal  opportunity  with  their  fel- 
lows. Two  thousand  years  ago  the  Great  Teacher 
came  to  show  by  example  and  by  precept  how  un- 
selfish service  might  be  made  to  rule  the  lives 
of  nations  and  of  men.  We  have  come  a  long  way, 
indeed,  from  that  day  when  workers  were  actual 
slaves,  held  bodily  in  thrall  by  the  masters  of  the 
world ;  yet  many  a  chain  binds  them  just  as  effec- 
tually today  and  keeps  them  from  opportunity 
just  as  surely  as  it  ever  did  in  the  darker  ages 
long  gone  by. 

Some  of  the  heaviest  of  these  chains  are  the 
reasons  for  the  inability  of  the  average  man  to 
gain  financial  independence  except  through  some 
enonnous  accident.  More  than  nine-tenths  of  the 
capital  of  the  world  is  held  and  controlled  by  less 
than  one-tenth  of  the  people,  and  naturally  enough 
this  wealth  is  exploited  for  the  sole  benefit  of  its 
owners.  Their  principal  interest  in  workers  is  to 
have  the  savings  of  all  classes  deposited  with  the 


THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS  123 

great  class  banks  on  the  plea  of  '  ^  safety, ' '  so  that 
these  savings  may  be  loaned  out  to  those  familiar 
with  the  exploitation  of  capital  in  order  to  make 
for  them  more  capital. 

Workers  have  been  told  that  saving  is  the  sure 
road  to  financial  independence.  AVhile  this  is  true, 
no  man  ever  has  won  financial  independence 
through  mere  saving  alone.  The  road  is  far  too 
long  and  difficult  to  follow,  too  fraught  with  the 
hazards  of  daily  needs  and  the  discouragements 
of  other  men's  successes.  For  everyone  who  has 
accumulated,  penny  by  penny  and  dollar  by  dol- 
lar, a  generous  hoard  in  old  age,  a  thousand,  nay, 
a  hundred  thousand  have  cast  aside  the  saving 
habit  somewhere  along  the  easy  grades  of  life. 

Men  are  limited  in  their  good  intentions  by 
the  fact  that  they  are  human.  They  desire  suc- 
cess, but  they  wish  it  quickly.  They  always  will 
be  easy  prey  for  the  get-rich-quick  schemer  and 
the  fake,  but  limber-tongued  promoter.  They  lack 
both  a  knowledge  of  the  pitfalls  of  finance  and 
a  decent  understanding  of  the  simplest  rules  of 
business.  Until  they  learn  the  secret  of  how  to 
organize  and  develop  their  capital  resources  so 
that  they  can  produce  the  most  out  of  them,  even 
as  the  capital  of  big  business  is  organized  and 
developed,  they  never  will  get  far  above  the  place 
they  now  are. 

Plain  ignorance,  ignorance  of  the  uses  of 
money,  ignorance  of  the  true  earning  power  of 


124  THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

money,  ignorance  of  sound  investment  oppor- 
tunity, ignorance  of  genuine  thrift — tliese  are 
some  of  the  heaviest  of  the  old  chains  that  still 
hold  men  down,  body  and  soul,  today  in  every 
community  in  America. 

The  worker  must  burst  these  chains  asunder. 
He  must  overcome  this  terrible  thrall  of  ignorance 
with  the  supremely  powerful  levers  of  KNOWL- 
EDGE and  CONFIDENCE. 

But  he  cannot  accomplish  wonders  by  himself. 
Strength  is  needed,  both  the  strength  of  numbers 
and  the  infinitely  greater  strength  of  puissant 
working  capital.  Money  is  power,  but  it  is  power 
for  the  worker,  if  he  will  only  realize  it,  just  as 
largely  and  as  effectively  as  it  ever  has  been  for 
big  or  little  business.  It  becomes  effective  just 
as  men  join  their  lives  and  resources  in  the  pur- 
suit of  common  aims.  The  big  things  of  the  world 
are  accomplished  because  men  with  common  in- 
terests believe  and  trust  and  work  together. 

Thus  co-operation  is  sometimes  called  the  big- 
gest thing  in  life.  Certainly  co-operation  for  un- 
selfish ends  can  have  no  worthy  rival.  It  is  not 
only  the  basic  ideal  of  Trustees  System  Service, 
but  it  is  the  very  body  and  soul  of  this  great  or- 
ganization. The  Trustees  System  partners  have 
no  greater  desire  than  to  teach  men  and  women 
how  best  to  take  advantage  of  their  opportunities. 

To  this  end  they  have  established  an  Industrial 
Banking  Service  which  is  offered  to  every  honest 


THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS  125 

man  and  woman,  and  which,  if  thriftily  followed, 
cannot  fail  to  build  their  lives  to  that  financial 
independence  which  is  the  desire  of  every  heart. 

To  this  end,  also,  they  have  brought  into  being 
a  powerful  business  structure,  in  which  any 
worker  can  purchase  an  investment  interest  on 
easy  and  advantageous  terms,  which  will  give  to 
him  not  only  a  reasonable  rental  return  on  his 
money,  but  also  a  full  participating  partnership 
in  all  the  profits  earned. 

The  wide  success  of  this  double  service  has 
been  earned  because  it  offers  men,  to  an  eminent 
degree,  a  thing  which  has  been  planned  to  give  aid 
and  comfort  and  pleasure  to  all  the  people.  It 
has  honestly  won  the  confidence  of  workers,  and 
through  a  period  of  growth,  matched  only  by  other 
Industrial  Banking  systems  of  the  world,  has  ably 
demonstrated  both  its  worth  and  practicability. 
It  is  a  truly  great  institution,  already  national  in 
influence,  and  with  a  goal  of  effective  service  that 
shall  one  day  be  really  national  in  scope. 

For  Industrial  Banking  in  America  is  only  in 
its  infancy.  The  vast  and  really  fertile  field  of 
our  country  lies  almost  untouched.  Where  France, 
Italy,  Germany,  even  Japan  and  far  India,  have 
their  powerful  co-operative  systems,  embracing 
thousands  of  thrifty  banking  units,  which  reach 
practically  into  every  town  and  village  and  touch 
every  community  life  with  their  helpful  and  edu- 
cating influence,  the  broad  stretches  of  our  o^^^l 


126  THE   GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

country,  although  possessed  of  immeasurably 
greater  resources,  show  only  a  single  thriving 
oasis  here  and  there. 

Japan  in  ten  years  has  established  eight  thou- 
sand Industrial  Banks.  Italy  has  two  vast  national 
systems.  In  India,  whore  in  1905,  there  were 
only  283  co-operative  societies,  in  1918  these  had 
grown  to  28,000.  Russia  reports  more  Industrial 
Banks  than  any  other  nation,  not  excepting  Ger- 
many, with  her  29,000.  There  are  9  million  mem- 
bers in  the  great  People's  Credit  Unions  of  Ger- 
many. 

Nearer  home,  in  the  province  of  Quebec,  in 
Canada  (which  many  years  ago  learned  the  profit- 
able lesson  of  Industrial  Banking  Service),  there 
is  a  little  town  of  8,000  people,  called  Levis,  in 
which  there  is  a  single  People's  Bank.  It  was  es- 
tablished by  the  famous  M.  Desjardins,  in  1900, 
with  only  a  few  dollars'  capital,  but  in  1920  it 
did  a  small  loans  business  of  more  than  $613,000. 

The  story  will  ever  be  the  same  the  world  over, 
AVherever  the  workers  gather  together,  and 
wherever  they  pool  a  part  of  their  savings  to  es- 
tablish an  institution  of  their  own  for  co-operative 
Industrial  Banking  Service,  they  will  be  astonished 
at  the  power  and  vast  resources  they  will  develop. 

There  is  an  abundance  of  capital  in  every  com- 
munity in  America  for  a  strong  Industrial  Bank- 
ing house  of,  by  and  for  the  workers  of  that  com- 
munity.    All  that  is  needed  is  suflficient  energy, 


THE  GOAL  OF  THE  BUILDERS  127 

knowledge  and  confidence  on  the  part  of  the 
armies  of  workers  themselves  to  inspire  them  with 
the  will  to  bring  it  about.  The  new  Vision  of 
Service  of  the  Trustees  System  organization  em- 
braces nothing  less  than  the  ambition  to  bring  to 
the  home  of  every  worker  this  fine  inspiration, 
and  to  make  an  accomplished  fact  in  every  com- 
munity of  the  nation  its  great  modern  slogan, 
' '  Universal  Service  in  America. ' ' 


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